A Dreamer's Final Wish
by Droiture LeReve
Summary: A mutant serpent has been found near the Turtle's lair. He's injured and his sister, murdered. Can the Turtles protect this foreign snake even through the toughest trials? And why is Donatello so attracted to this newcomer?
1. Chapter 1

Note: Alllllll right fellas, we're goin' to war! I am absolutely TMNT nerdy right now, to the point where I've cut holes in my old orange Tae Kwon Do belt and begun wearing it around my head in public. Yes, I'm insane, and no, you may not judge me. I would be wearing a red one for my favorite turtle (Raphael, durr) but I never got to that color of belt before I quit taking Tae Kwon Do. Green belt was the highest I achieved. Therefore, I'm stuck with Mikey. Speaking of Mikey, I've made him SERIOUSLY like, ADD in this fic, mostly because that's how I am and that's how I perceive his character. It's funnier that way.

I am in fact still working on Father's Scorn, Mother's Regret, but my combination of sleep-deprivation and TMNT nerdiness has spawned this hellish fanfic. I BANISH THEE FROM WHENCE THY CAME! No, actually, I banish it to , where I wrote it and you all have to look at it. I am so sorry, especially since my infamous fan-character is here... God! I promised myself I wouldn't keep doing this!

I don't own TMNT, the... person who does... does. Or something. But I don't, so suing me would gain you nothing.

**A Dreamer's Final Wish**

Innocent, out-of-tune whistling echoed throughout the Lair as Michaelangelo swept up the remains of a lamp he'd broken, hoping to hide the shards away before Leo or Master Splinter figured it out. He scooped the shards of glass and ceramic into a dust pan, and took the dust pan outside the lair to the garbage. As he dumped the pan, the garbage shuddered and cried out. "Whoa! Dude, I didn't know garbage could do that."

The bags shuddered more still, and one fell away to reveal a thick, scaly tail made of solid muscle. "Whoa!" Mikey grabbed the tail and pulled, revealing the injured body of a giant hooded cobra in a mask. Or was it a mask? It was hard to tell. The cobra struggled to get up, using arms that shouldn't have been there.

"'Elp...meee..." It whispered raspily, before falling down, collapsing on top of Mikey. It was then that Mikey noticed the grievous burn injuries and blood covering the majority of what appeared to be _his _face and body, hidden by long dark hair.

"Dude, what the shell?" Mikey called out, dragging the giant serpent mutant inside the lair to help tend to its wounds. "Aw, man, Leo and the others better be back soon..."

Mikey decided to pull the cobra's hair back in a loose braid, to make it easier to tend to the wounds underneath the hair. He almost stopped and freaked out when it turned out that most of the cobra's right half of his face had been burned away, leaving nothing but oozing flesh and charred bone behind. So it wasn't a mask, Mikey thought. "Hot damn, snake dude, somebody shelled you up."

The snake opened his eye, a piercing green eye with a slit for a pupil. A black streak ran from just above his eye ridge to just below his high cheekbone. He looked angry, but weak.

"Dude, are you ok?"

The snake coughed up soot, covering his entire front in black inky goo. "It... 'urts..." He rasped, each word clipped and quiet, as if the snake did not want to let this strange turtle hear his true voice.

"It looks like it hurts, dude. Here, lay on the couch, and I'll get you somethin' to drink to wash out that inky taste you've probably got in your mouth." Mikey gently pushed the large reptile down onto the battered old couch.

"_Non, non! _I must go." The snake finally found a voice, one of French origin and hissing pitch. "I cannot stay. I am not safe."

"Dude, you're bleeding and all burned up. Stay here, don't worry, I'm a friend. I won't hurt you, I promise. When my brothers and our sensei get home, just explain the situation and I promise you they'll take good care of you. But don't freak out, snake dude. Whatever happened to you is over now. Take a chill pill and chillax, legless. I promise nothin' bad is gonna happen to you here." Mikey said calmly, holding out a glass of water to the cobra.

The snake slowly reached for the glass, almost scared-looking. Finally his tri-taloned hand closed around the glass, slowly taking it back towards him. He looked inside, sniffed it, decided it wasn't poison, and gulped it down in one giant sip. He flicked his forked tongue out to get the last drops.

"See, snake dude? Not gonna hurt ya."

"I... I thank you for your hospitality, but I really must go." The snake tried to stand up, but collapsed back down, crying in pain.

"Ahh! Ok, dude, hold on, I'm gonna call my brothers back early, maybe they can fix you up." Mikey grabbed the Shell-Cell, dialing Donatello's number.

_"What, Mikey? We're kind of in the middle of something."_

"Dude, I went to take out the garbage, and there was this giant snake guy in it! He's bleeding and all burned up and I'm afraid he's gonna hurt himself more, and I dunno what to do, and ooh look a butterfly-"

_"Mikey, focus!" _

"Sorry! You guys gotta come back as soon as you can. He's really shelled up. I dunno what to do or how to treat 'im! At least you gotta come back, Donny! I can't do this by myself!"

_"Okay, okay. I'll be there as soon as I can." _Donatello hung up, and Mikey put the phone down.

"Okay, snake dude, my brother Donny will be back soon. He's really good with medical stuff, he'll fix you right up good, ok? You'll be good as new in no time."

"Why are you 'elping me?" The cobra asked.

"'Cause dude, you were shelled up! You needed help. I'm not just gonna leave ya there to die, that's not the Turtle way, dude."

"Tur...tle? You are mutated turtle?"

"Dude, you're a mutated snake. Speakin' of which, I can't just keep callin' ya 'snake dude'. You've got a name, doncha?"

"Only if you tell me yours."

"Okay, fair deal, I guess. My name's Michaelangelo, but you can call me Mikey, ok? Now what's your name?"

"My name is Droiture." The cobra said, wiping blood off his eyes with the backs of his hands.

Mikey grimaced. "Ok... dude, I can't even hope to pronounce that right. You got something easier I can call you? Something my pizza-and-video-game-addicted attention span can remember?" Mikey tapped the side of his head with his big green finger.

"I would not know. Think of something, I suppose." Droiture said, grimacing in pain as he tried to move.

"Okay... uhhh... Dragg...drugga...gerard... Jerry? Can I just call you Jerry?"

"Err... Jerry sounds nothing like my name, but I guess if it suits you, you may call me what you wish."

The lair doors opened, and immediately Droiture threw his hands up, protecting his face with his forearms.

"Dude, calm down it's just my brother Donny. He's here to help you, ok, Jerry?"

Donatello ran up and knelt by Droiture, who slowly lowered his shaking arms. "Wow, you are messed up. My name is Donny, what's yours?"

"Apparently my name is Jerry now." Droiture said.

"I can't pronounce his real name so I call him Jerry. He doesn't seem to care." Mikey explained.

"Ok, then, Jerry. You seem to be burned very severely. Burns like this usually don't heal, no matter what kind of medical attention you get. The most I can really do is dress your wounds, clean off the blood, and administer some painkillers. Is that alright with you?"

"I would almost rather you not go through the trouble and simply let me leave." Droiture, err, Jerry said, not looking Donny in the eye.

"I can't do that, Jerry. You're really hurt and it's amazing you're still able to speak with your jaw melted over like that. It's ok. I'm not going to hurt you or do anything horrible when you're on the painkillers. Turtle's honor."

"I am sorry to cause you trouble." Jerry said, his hands in his lap, or where his lap would be if he had legs.

"It's no trouble at all. Us Turtles pride ourselves on being good people, and that means we help people in need. Once my brothers and our sensei come home, they'll tell you the exact same thing."

Jerry said nothing, and simply let Donny begin to disinfect and clean his burns. One particularly violent muscle spasm, caused by the sting of the disinfectant, caused Jerry to hiss angrily, shooting venom from his forefangs.

"Ahh!" Donny said, dodging the venom shot, and watched with horror as the floor melted away. "That _so _could have been my face."

"I apologize. Sometimes I cannot help defending myself in the presence of pain."

"It's alright. But just remember I'm here to help you, not hurt you. Just relax and let me bandage your wounds. How did these wounds happen anyway?"

"I have traveled a very long way. I come here from France, because I had heard that there were others like me."

"Other mutants, you mean?"

"Yes. I think I have found them."

"Yes, I believe you're right, unless there are any other giant mutated reptiles floating about in New York's sewer system." Donny answered.

"_Oui, oui, _I had heard there were others like me and wanted to be with them. However, I didn't realize you lived in shadow."

"You traveled around on the surface and the humans were afraid of you."

"I was captured and tortured. They threw me down the sewer, hoping me to die."

"We've always known how the humans would react to us. That's why we were trained as ninjas, and that's why we live down in the sewers. We knew that if the humans knew about us, they'd capture and torture us, too. Maybe even kill us. Humans are like that." Donny said, finishing with one bandage and moving onto another. "Not all humans, of course, but a lot of them."

"I fear for my sister. We were separated in the sewer system. I fear she may already be dead. She was sick, very sick, and the humans did worse to her than they did to me. I can no longer connect to her mind as I could before... I fear the worst."

"Don't worry, Jerry, we're gonna find your sister dead or alive. Hopefully alive."

"Hopefully, but very unlikely." Jerry responded grimly as Donny finished with the final bandage, the one covering his face. Donny left his mouth uncovered, though his nose was covered up. The bandages snaked around his face and around his good eye, leaving that eye and his mouth free.

The lair doors opened again and Leo, Raph, and Splinter made their way inside. "Hey Donny, where's our new friend you mentioned before running off like that?" Raph asked.

"He's over here, guys. I just finished bandaging his wounds. It seems a pack of fearful humans did this to him."

"My sister! Ask if they found my sister!" Jerry whispered furiously.

"He wants to know if you've found another mutant snake around. Smaller, curly hair, big eyes," Donny said, going by the frantic hand motions Jerry was making from the couch. "And what appears to a little frilly outfit or something."

"No, we didn't. We're sorry. We'll keep on the lookout, though. What's your name, friend?"

Jerry sighed in annoyance. "Jerry." He said in a monotone, please-kill-me voice.

"Okay. I'm Leonardo, and this is my brother Raphael. Our master and father is Master Splinter, he's over there." Leo pointed to Splinter, who was meditating.

"You are turtles... but your father is a rat?"

"Don't ask. We were adopted." Donny said dully. "Anyway, don't worry about that. It's time to worry about yourself. Your injuries would be life-threatening if I hadn't gotten here when I did." Donny said. "In fact, they might have been fatal. Burns like that often cause major organ damage. You're actually lucky it was only your face and arm that was burned. A burn like that to your abdomen could have destroyed your intestines, one to the chest could have stopped your heart." Donny said grimly. "I doubt you'll ever get full mobility of that hand again, and it's a guarantee your eye is blinded permanently."

"I like you. You cut right to the chase." Jerry said, smiling softly.

"I simply don't see the point of sugar-coating the truth." Donny replied.

Jerry's tail slithered around off the edge of the couch. It shook and twitched, but as Jerry was not a rattlesnake, it made no sound. It eventually slithered up and caused Jerry to slide off the couch, before forcing himself upright. "Even if my hand and eye are crippled, I will find my sister. She is all I have."

"_Was _all you had, dude. Come on, we're the Ninja Turtles! We'll be your friends." Mikey said happily.

"I am sorry. I am grateful for your aid and hospitality, but I must find Annabella first. She is my first priority. Once I have her safe and sound, then I will talk about friendship."

"Let us help you. It'll be a lot easier to scour the entire sewer system if there's four of us searching instead of one." Leonardo said.

"Five." Jerry corrected.

"No, four. You're staying here and resting. You've been through a shell of a lot in the last 24 hours, apparently, and you are in no condition to be searching through filthy, bacteria-infested sewers. You'll infect your burns. The turtles and I will go, and we promise, if we find your sister, we will protect her with our lives. You have our promise as ninjas." Leo said.

"But she is my sister! I made a promise to her to protect her always. I made a promise, not you!" Jerry said, venom dripping down his chin.

"Please, Jerry. Let us go. We swear on our lives to keep her safe." Leo said.

Jerry wheezed, coughed up a bubble of blood, and collapsed back onto the couch. Donny rushed to his side. "See? This is why you need to stay here. Your lungs may have been damaged in the fight. You. Need. To. Heal."

Jerry managed to stop coughing up thick, black blood and venom long enough to glare at Leo angrily before nodding at him. "But swear to me that dead or alive, my sister will be brought back here to me."

"We swear, Jerry. Dead or alive, we bring her back with us. If we find her."

"_When _you find her." Jerry said.

"Yes. When we find her." Leo said. Jerry coughed up some more venom and blood before passing out, the world going dark.

"Annabella..."

Donny stood up. He went over to Splinter. "Splinter, we're going to go look for Jerry's sister. Could you keep an eye on Jerry for us and call me if like, he starts coughing up more blood or he soaks through his bandages?"

"I can and will do this for you, my son. Go now. This young serpent has been through a lot, and still he focuses on his goal. It is the least we can do to allow him to fulfill his duty of protecting his dear sister." Splinter said, moving his meditation mat and candles closer to Jerry's unconscious form.

"Thanks, Master Splinter! We'll be back soon, I hope. Come on, Mikey."

"Coming, dude."

The Turtles left the lair, and Splinter began meditating once more.


	2. Chapter 2

Note: Ahhhh I hate myself sometimes.

I don't own TMNT, I never will, I never did. So get off my back.

**Fragile Creatures**

The turtles came back to the lair to find Jerry curled up on the couch, watching soap operas with Splinter.

"So the gay man is having an affair with his wife's sister? But I thought he was gay!"

"Yes, my young serpent, but no one knows yet that her sister is really a man."

"I do not understand."

"You will, in time, my child."

Donatello walked up to Jerry.

"Jerry, we're sorry. We saw no sign of your sister yet. We'll keep looking later, but for now we're really tired."

"All right. I can only hope and pray at this point anyway." Jerry stretched back out and stood up. He slithered around a pole, keeping himself in place wrapped around it. He put his fingers to his temples and focused, focused, focused, but alas, nothing. "I am trying to make some sort of contact with her mind as I could before, but I cannot." He slid back down to the ground. "If only I could sense her mind, I could lead you in her direction." Jerry said, slithering around nervously and holding his now-aching head.

"Don't worry about it for now, Jerry. For now, come here and let me change your bandages. You're starting to soak through those ones." Donny said calmly, holding his hand out to Jerry.

"All right." Jerry took Donny's hand and allowed Donny to lead him to where most of the medical supplies were kept.

"I'm amazed the pain isn't getting to you. You shouldn't even be able to move."

"It is not _that _bad. Most of the pain has ceased, and I am already beginning to move my hand again. Though I am sure the pain will come back. Pain tends to do that. Go in cycles." Jerry said, twirling his finger around in the air while Donny slowly removed the bandages on his face, and let them fall to the floor with a wet _squelch. _

"I truly am sorry that we didn't find your sister. We were looking everywhere. We followed the sewer as far as it could go and didn't find any trace of her." Donny explained.

"Thank you for trying. It relieves me that you did not find her corpse."

"Why? We couldn't find her. She could be somewhere, dying and wondering where her brother is, or why he's not there to save her."

"Yes, but that means she is still alive. If you had found a corpse, I would have known for certain she was dead. And while it is very likely that she is dead, I prefer to delude myself with false hope that she still lives." Jerry said, chuckling grimly under his breath as Donny re-wrapped his head with clean bandages.

"Well, sometimes it's all you can do is hope, right? Without hope, what do we have?" Donny replied, taking Jerry's hand to unwrap the filthy bandages from his arm. Again, Donny let the bandages fall to the floor with a sick wet sound.

"Still, I promised her I would keep her safe... and I failed miserably. I can only pray she forgives me."

"Of course she will, Jerry. Now, I don't know your sister. I've never met her. But if she and you are as close as you say, and you made such a promise to her, then of course she'll forgive you. Why wouldn't she? It wasn't your fault you were attacked. You were just regular snakes before you were mutated, right?"

"I was a cobra, once. I remember vaguely. I came across a broken canister, and this green... liquid was flowing from it. I touched it, and I began to change. My sister was born a while later, and she was transformed at birth from her egg being laid too close to the broken canister. By the time I was in my teens, and her a child, we were both fully mutated into these forms."

Donny stopped. "Did this canister have TGRI written on the side?"

"I would not know. I could not read until a couple of years ago, long after our transformation. Annabella still can't, nor can she speak English."

Donny's eyes dropped. "Oh... Here I thought we'd finally gotten track of the remaining ooze canisters. We've been trying to collect them all and destroy them so what happened to mutants like you and me doesn't happen to anyone else. We don't want more attacks like what happened to you. We'd rather quietly die out and never let the world know we ever existed. The press would have a field day with us." Donny said sadly. He finished wrapping Jerry's arm and hand back up. "How can you speak such good English when your sister can't speak it at all?"

"I learned from listening to the world around me. We lived in a section of France where there was a large English-speaking tourist population. I listened to them, but was too afraid for Annabella's safety- she is much more curious and gets into much more trouble than myself- so I never let her come along. She stayed behind in our home outside of Paris. She speaks French, but nothing more. I learned to read by myself, though I still cannot do it well. Not in English, anyway. I can read in French just fine."

"I see. I promise we'll find her." Donny said, patting Jerry's arm reassuringly. "But how will we communicate with her? She's bound to be afraid of us if we can't speak the same language."

"I wanted to go with you the first time you looked for her. But you did not allow me. I want to go this time around." Jerry said firmly, narrowing his slitted eye at Donny. "Annabella and I speak a common language. Hearing her brother's voice speak in her tongue will perhaps coax her to come out of hiding... if she is alive to hide." He said.

"You're still so injured... is there any way I can set you up with a communications hub from here? I'll take a video phone with me and hook you up, so you can see and hear everything we do. You can speak through it and it'll be just like taking you along with us, but you can do it all from the Lair and not have to worry about injuring yourself further. If you hurt yourself even a little bit more, you could end up dead. I don't want to see that happen, and I'm sure your sister doesn't either. I'll set up the hub now, if you want to come with me to learn the controls."

"Why would I not learn the controls of a machine I plan to operate?" Jerry said, following behind Donny.

Donny sat Jerry down in the chair in front of the computer system. "This is the video call button. I'll set all that up just before we go. What you need to do is simply speak into the microphone here and look into the monitor. The entire monitor is one big camera, so there's no need to be looking at the camera instead of what's going on around you. Be careful, because some of these components haven't been soldered in yet, so if you move too much and reopen your wounds, you could electrify yourself. Master Splinter will be here if you need anything, and remember that you can certainly talk to us as well. We'll leave in the morning after we've all had a good night's sleep, okay?"

"_Oui, _I understand." Jerry got up and slithered back towards the couch. "If I may ask, Turtles, why are you so willing to help me if you've only just met me?"

"Like I said before, we pride ourselves on being good people. You're in need, and we plan to provide aid. You seem trustworthy enough, and you're a mutant, like us. Call us biased, but we're definitely willing to help one of our own." Donny said.

"Well, I thank you very much, Donny." Jerry said, smiling softly with charred-black lips and gleaming white fangs. "Not many among the living would be willing to help a snake. We're usually trouble."

"Oh, don't say that. Snakes are associated with trouble, yeah, but that doesn't mean you automatically are evil. Judging you based on your appearance would be wrong. I only wish the humans who did this to you could think the same way." Leonardo piped up from his place by the refrigerator, grabbing food for both himself and Raph, who was waiting by the heavy bag, sais in hand. He had been practicing while Leo instructed, and Leo also listened. Mikey was currently in his room, curled up in sleep. He'd fallen straight to sleep once the turtles got back.

"_Mais oui." _Jerry responded, coiling up on the couch in classic snake fashion, his head resting on his arms, resting on his coiled tail. "Tell that to the humans."

Leo flopped on the couch beside him after giving Raph his food. "Hey, cheer up. We'll find her. She's out there somewhere and we will find her."

"I thank you for your efforts, but do not go out of your way. If at all possible, I will find Annabella myself and take my leave. It feels...wrong to intrude upon your hospitality like this."

"Jerry, you're covered in burn scars. If anything, you live here now. You traveled this whole way from freakin' France, man. Why would we let you just leave? You've gotta at least taste some good New York food before you go." Raph said, scarfing down a slice of cold pizza, quickly followed by a swig of cola. "We ain't gonna let ya go that easy. We're tryin' ta be friendly, ya know?"

Jerry simply stared at the static on the television, a burning tear slowly making its way down his cheek. "Annabella." He said quietly.

"Her name is pretty. Annabella. I like that name." Leo said. "What's your real name?"

"Droiture. It is French for 'Righteousness'."

"It suits you. Though none of us can ever hope to pronounce it properly, or do it justice, so we'll just keep calling you Jerry, is that alright?"

"_Oui, _of course. I would not ask you to twist your tongues in a foreign way just to communicate with me." Jerry laughed a little. "I am simply blessed that your names are easier to say in any language."

"Yeah, Master Splinter named us all after Renaissance masters, then taught us the way of the ninja." Leo replied. "I don't really know how artist equals ninja, but it works for us, I guess."

"So you are all ninjas?"

"Ninja. Yes. The plural of ninja is ninja, kind of how the plural of moose is moose, or fish is fish. Same thing. But yeah, we're all ninja. Pretty good ones, too, if I do say so myself- ow!"

Splinter had knocked Leonardo over the head with his staff. "Overconfidence will be a ninja's downfall, Leonardo."

"Yes, Master Splinter... ow." Leo rubbed his head. Jerry laughed quietly, a hissing laughter, beneath his claw.

"If you like, young serpent, I can teach you some basics of ninjutsu, so you can defend yourself as well." Splinter said.

"I would enjoy that very much, Master. As soon as I can move well enough to hold a weapon, I shall take you up on that offer." Jerry replied, smiling. "I can use my claws and fangs as natural weapons, plus I am not bad with whip-type weapons, like segmented swords and wires. In fact, it was only because of clever barbed wire use that I was able to escape the humans alive." Jerry confessed.

"It's this sort of thing that draws us to aid you, Jerry. You're so dutiful, so determined to fulfill your promise. We will find Annabella, and we promise we'll bring her back to you." Donny said, casually flicking the long braid of Jerry's jet-black hair over Jerry's shoulder to his front.

"Thank you, Donny. You and your brothers are more kind than anyone else I've met in my life. Forgive me for being so suspicious earlier. I was afraid."

"There's no need to thank us. We're just doing what we do best."

Jerry held his hair to his chest and stared at it, as if unable to respond. He suddenly stood up, slid around to the back of the couch, and wrapped his long arms around Donatello, clutching him in a tight embrace.

Donny's face immediately flushed red, his eyes shooting open wide. "Ummmm...!" He exclaimed.

"I simply want to thank you for all that you have done, Donny. You have bandaged my wounds, searched for my sister, and spoken to me more kindly than any human ever has."

"Um, ok..."

"Hey, what about me? I found ya!" Mikey joked, waving his arms around. Jerry let Donny go and hugged Mikey too, and then, for good measure, he grabbed both Leo and Raph in one big hug, too, before moving on to hug Splinter to his scaly chest.


	3. Chapter 3

Note: The first part of this chapter was originally the last part of the last chapter, but I split it up because the chapter would have been like, 5000 words long otherwise. Then I copied and pasted something else and LOST THE ENTIRE CHUNK OF THE CHAPTER SO I HAD TO REDO ALL OF IT OH GOD

I'm not kidding. I started crying. I'm so upset right now. All that translating is such a bitch!

I STILL don't own TMNT, as much as I would love to be that rich.

_**Traître (Snake)**_

The next day, the turtles were ready to go hunting for Annabella again, and Donny had re-wrapped Jerry's wounds before setting him up at the computer station. "Remember, you can see and hear everything, so it's just like being there, only without the sewer smell or getting an accidental mouthful of sludge. Okay? I would totally bring you with us, but I'm afraid your wounds are going to get infected out there. We don't exactly have the pinnacle of medical technology down here in an abandoned sewer system."

"Yes, I understand, and I thank you forever for your unneeded effort. You have done so much for me. I will call for Annabella in French, and hopefully she will answer."

"Hopefully." Donny agreed, and the turtles left. There were four monitors that Jerry could see through, connected to four screens in Jerry's central hub. There was one microphone shared amongst them, and each separate monitor went with a separate turtle to each of the four corners of the sewer. Jerry could see all, hear all, and know all.

_"__Ma sœur ! Ma sœur charmante , où es-tu allé ? Il est votre frère ! S'il vous plaît répondez-moi , ma sœur!" _(My sister! My lovely sister, where are you? It is your brother! Please answer me, my sister!) Jerry called into the microphone.

After three hours, the turtles and Jerry were ready to call it quits. "Annabella..." Jerry called one last time. "Annabella... _S'il vous plaît... S'il vous plaît." _(Please... please.)

A tiny voice responded._ "Frère ... Je ne vois pas ..." _the little voice called weakly, barely audible in the deepest shadows. (Brother... I cannot see...)

"Dude, I found her!" Mikey called, pulling a petite serpent girl out from a shadowy corner. She was covered in blood, weak, and near death, her orange hair stained red and her eyes a milky white. Mikey lifted her into his arms and rushed back to the lair, the others in tow.

"_Ma sœur ! Ma sœur charmante!" _Jerry cried, slithering to her as Donny rushed to bandage her wounds. Annabella wheezed and coughed each breath, each inhale and exhale seeming to hurt her tiny lungs. She was much smaller than Jerry, and much thinner and weaker. Donny gathered ointments and bandages, dropping things in his haste. He whined as he couldn't seem to hold on to anything.

"She's hurt very badly, and very sick. She seems to have already gone blind, and we're pretty sure she won't make it through the night." Leo explained sadly, placing his hand on Jerry's arm. "It's... highly unlikely she'll survive even an hour longer. I would... I would suggest you say your goodbyes now... I don't think she'll make it. She's too sick and been too badly injured. Her body isn't strong enough to handle it."

Jerry inhaled sharply, not a gasp of surprise but one of pain. He lowered himself close to his sister.

_"Ma sœur, je suis désolée de vous manqué . J'ai promis de vous protéger ... Quel genre de frère suis-je?" _Jerry whispered into Annabella's ear. (My sister, I am so sorry I failed you... I promised I'd protect you... What kind of brother am I?)

_"Ce n'est pas votre faute , grand frère ... Nous étions séparés ... Vous ne pouvait pas savoir . Je vous pardonne ." _Annabella responded, slowly and weakly. (It's not your fault, big brother... We were separated... You couldn't have known. I forgive you.)

Donny reached for the ace bandages, but the sound of him moving away caused Annabella to raise her little claw. _"Non, ne perdez pas votre matériel . Je suis mort . Tout va bien. " _She said to Donny. Though blind, she could hear and sense the world around her, albeit faintly. Jerry realized why he couldn't connect to Annabella's mind: She was simply too weak to maintain the connection. If she had tried, the stress would have killed her immediately. What was as simple as breathing before now became a great struggle, one as difficult as climbing the highest mountain to this poor little girl who had no fire left.

"What did she say?"

Jerry tried to speak, but was silent and gaping for a moment before croaking, "She said not to waste your supplies... that she is dead and it's alright."

"Shell... Jerry I'm so sorry. If we'd been just a little faster, an hour sooner..."

"No...This is the way it must be. Destiny has set this path before us, and Destiny has chosen my sister as a sacrifice. _S'il vous plaît pardonnez à votre frère fou , Annabella ... et veiller sur lui du ciel ." _(Please forgive your foolish brother, Annabella... and watch over him from Heaven.)

_"Je t'aime Frère ... Je suis simplement heureux que j'ai pu entendre votre voix une dernière fois . Au revoir ." _(I love you Brother... I am simply happy I got to hear your voice one last time. Goodbye.)

_"Au revoir." _Jerry repeated as his beloved sister slipped away, and grew cold in Michaelangelo's arms. She smiled serenely as her final breath exhaled, and then was silent.

"Dude... We're so sorry." Mikey said quietly, as Jerry whispered _au revoir, au revoir, au revoir _over and over, stroking his sister's dirty face. "We... we were too late, dude."

"I am... sorry to... make you waste your time. She was already dying from the start."

"No, don't say that, Jerry. We were happy to help you, and we're incredibly grieved by her death. We never meant for this to happen. We're sorry. Please tell us you'll stay with us, and heal from your own injuries. We couldn't save Annabella, and I'm sorry, but we can still save you." Donny said firmly, grasping Jerry's shoulder. Jerry's chest heaved a few times before he pitched 'round and buried his head in Donatello's chest, wheezing and shaking as he tried desperately not to cry. Donny wrapped him up in his arms and said, "Come on, let it out. It's all right now. I promise."

Jerry cried out and sobbed as Mikey placed the cold, stiff serpent girl on the floor. "_Ma sœur, Ma sœur, non, non, Ma sœur, non!" _(My sister, my sister, no, no, my sister, no!) He clutched at Donny desperately, claws digging into Donny's shell.

"Shhh, it's all okay now. It's all okay now. You're here, with us, where it's safe again."

_"Ma sœur, Ma sœur, Ma sœur..." _Jerry mumbled, wavering in Donny's arms. He eventually collapsed against Donny, passed out. Tears streaked down his face, making bloody trails in his bandages and wet paths over his nose and blackened lips.

Donny dragged him to the couch. "We need to have some sort of funeral for Annabella when he wakes up. It's only right."

"Dude lost his only family in the world. I really feel for him. I would hate to lose any of you guys. I'd die without you." Mikey said. "I can only imagine the pain he's in."

Raph simply stared at the little dead girl, shaking his head with tears forming in the corners of his eyes that he simply blinked away. "I've seen people die before, Shell, I've killed a few Foot soldiers in my day. But I ain't never seen a little girl with no fire in her eyes. I just... I dunno what ta say." Raph said.

"None of us do. We're all stunned by this, Raph." Leo said. "We tried so hard to save her, but we were just too late."

"At least we saved him. At least he can survive in her memory." Donny said, re-wrapping Jerry's face bandages once more to avoid infection brought on by his tears.

"Man, I feel like we were just too slow. What would have happened if we found her earlier? Would she have survived?" Raph asked, closing Annabella's milky eyes.

"I don't know. She was really sick, and it looked like she'd been sick for a while. She was probably fighting off some sort of disease before Jerry and her even reached America. Combine that with the attack, and I don't think anything could have saved her. It's possible the disease alone could have killed her, eventually. I really don't think we could have saved her. We could have prolonged the inevitable, maybe, but nothing more." Donny said sadly, tears dripping from his eyes, soaking through his mask. "It always feels like a failure when we fail to save someone's life, especially someone so sweet and innocent. Did you see the smile on her face when she died? She was the simple sort. She didn't want anything elaborate or a hero to burst in and save the day. She was just happy that she died in the presence of her beloved big brother. That's what I got from it, anyway. I don't speak French."

"I understood a little tiny bit of what she said." Leo said, thinking. "It kind of sounded like she said she was happy to hear his voice before she died, I think. Or she could have been saying something else, but I'm pretty sure _voix _means 'voice'. I don't know, though. I could be wrong."

Raph shrugged.

"We should get her off the floor. It seems kind of... disrespectful or something to just leave her there." Mikey said. He lifted her stiff body and waited for a cue as to where to put her.

"Put her on the medical table for now. Cover her in something, I guess. We'll ask Jerry what he wants to do with her once he regains consciousness."

Mikey did as he was told while Donny hovered over Jerry, placing his hand on Jerry's forehead. "I'm so sorry, Jerry... This was never meant to happen. We'll keep you safe here, I promise. The humans that did this to you and your sister will never find you again." Donny vowed. "I promise."

"We should try and cheer him up when he wakes up." Mikey suggested. "I mean, I know it probably won't work, but maybe he'll appreciate the thought."

"You're right, Mikey. Let's go get some food or flowers or something. At least try to make this place seem like a new home to him. I mean, he's going to be here a while." Leo agreed, and the turtles left. Splinter looked at Jerry and shook his head.

"You have lost the only true light in your soul, young serpent. I can only hope you re-light the fire within yourself. Otherwise, you will lose yourself to the darkness as well." He said quietly, before walking off to meditate, leaving Jerry asleep in the shadowy silence of the underground lair.


	4. Chapter 4

Note: Another chapter! Look at me, I'm a dramatic, badly-writing machine. In this chapter, there are teensy implications of turtlecest (nothing explicit, but teensy implications) so if that doesn't float your boat, feel free to click the back button and GTFO my story. Especially since it might get explicit later. I don't know yet. It depends on how vindictive I'm feeling towards the flamers. I can be a pretty wrathful little bitch when I want to be. Word to the wise.

I STILL DON'T OWN TMNT. GET IT THROUGH YOUR THICK SKULL. JESUS.

Remember, translations in the parentheses (that's these things "( )" for the less literate) are not what the characters are saying, it's the translations to anything in another language they might be saying. It's just for those who don't speak French or Japanese.

Also remember that I'm using Google Translate for most of this, so what you see is what you get. I don't fluently speak either French or Japanese, so my translations may or may not be horribly wrong.

_**Passionné Conscience (Passionate Heart)**_

"Jerry, catch!" Mikey chucked a training set of nunchuks at Jerry, who caught them easily.

Three months after his ordeal, he had stayed true to his word and stayed with the Turtles as per Donny's request. Still, he ventured to the surface every so often, under heavy disguise (It was hard to disguise a man with a tail instead of legs, so his disguise was a hooded man in a wheelchair, a blanket covering his coiled lower body) to visit the grave site where the Turtles had buried his beloved sister.

The service was small, of course, but Jerry was grateful he could send his beloved sister off properly. "Thank you." he had said, "You did not have to do this."

In return, he had gotten sad smiles and assurances of "We wanted to, Jerry. We couldn't let you suffer for our sake."

Jerry could not thank the Turtles enough for all they had done. They'd given him a home and a new reason to live, and Jerry tried to repay them the best he could. He did simple things like clean the lair while the turtles were away, cooked dinner, and did other things. Things he could do with his injured hand. Soon, his hand began to regain motion, until most of his mobility was back. Donny had called it a miracle, said that his hand, damaged as it was, should never have gained even the mobility it did.

However, there was a darkness in Jerry's soul that would not go away, and the snake often found himself in places he never remembered going, surrounded by destruction he did not cause, and wondering why there were ghosts whispering in the night. He saw his sister in his dreams, her cut-up little eyes and her broken lips singing bittersweet goodbyes while fallen angels sang a medly of requiems for her passing. Jerry spent most of his time when not cleaning or cooking staring at the snow on the television screen, lost in his own imagination. There were worlds outside this one, and they were dark and morose, but still Jerry could not leave them. He saw little flashing lights out the corner of his eye, heard whispers in the darkness, and still he could not leave them.

As Jerry caught the nunchuks, he smiled bitterly through his thick bangs, which he began wearing down to cover the side of his face that was burned so badly. He let the rest of his long flowing hood of hair down his back freely.

He forced his darkness inward, and allowed false light to shine through.

"Come on, dude, Master Splinter wants to finally start teaching you some ninja moves, dude! You're gonna be one shell-raisin', mother-fangin' snake-ninja when he's through with you! Master Splinter's the awesomest!" Mikey said with a huge grin on his green face. "You said you liked flexible weapons, so I gave you an old set of my training nunchucks. They're lighter than real ones and padded so they won't hurt you as bad if you hit yourself in the little turtles like I always used to. Once Master Splinter sees your awesomeness, he'll promote you to something extra-awesome, I'm sure. Well, come on, dude! Don't stand there!" Mikey called, ushering Jerry through. Jerry slid into the dojo, his upper body moving back and forth to accommodate the motion of his lower body.

"Ah, young serpent. I see you have considered my offer to join our dojo." Splinter said, not looking up from his meditation.

"I have sir, and I accept. I can move and fight much easier than I could when Michaelangelo first rescued me from the sewer sludge, and although I know this will be difficult for my broken body to adjust to, I want to learn so that I may protect myself and the ones who saved my life in times of crisis. I do not want to lose them as I lost my Annabella. You and your sons have given me so much and I simply want to repay you for your generosity and kindness."

Splinter opened one eye, glanced at Jerry, and smiled. "Then welcome to my dojo, my student."

"Thank you, Master Splinter. It is an honor to be taught by someone so kind and so... willing to help an young _traître _(snake) like me." Jerry said formally, bowing his body down so his head almost touched the tatami-patterned floor.

"The honor is mine, young one. If I may ask, how do they say 'one with great passion' in your tongue?" Splinter asked, bowing. Jerry chuckled.

"The literal translation is _une avec une grande passion, _but if it is a title you are looking for, a more casual translation could be _très passionné une,_ which means 'very passionate one'." Jerry said.

"Then that is what you are. In Japanese you would be called _Tsu no jōnetsu_, which means 'passionate one', roughly. You have great passion and great heart, which would make you a great ninja. You have strength and inner fire in your soul, and you have a great will to be moving and willing to train hard with the injuries you have sustained. I am very proud to be teaching a student such as you."

Jerry shook his head. "You flatter me far too much, _maître._(master)It is you are the teacher, and I your humble _étudiant, _(student)." Jerry said.

Splinter smiled and placed his hand on Jerry's scaly shoulder. "I think you and I are going to work well together, young serpent. You are much more willing to learn than any of my sons ever were. Well, except Leonardo, but let's face it, he always was a 'teacher's pet' sort of boy."

"I heard that!" Leo called from the other room. Jerry could hear Raphael laughing at him.

"Dude, Splinter called you a teacher's pet! Ah-ha!"

"Shut up, Raph!"

Jerry chuckled. "I simply want to repay the wonderful people who saved me from an agonizing death."

Splinter nodded. "We are truly sorry we could not save your sister as well."

Jerry's smile faded, but he still had a soft look in his uncovered eye. "She was always _mon bel ange (_my beautiful angel), and now she can be a true _ange gardien _(guardian angel). I know she is watching me from Heaven, and I know that she would want it this way."

"Let's honor your sister's beloved memory, and begin our first lesson. What training weapon have you chosen for our first lesson?"

"Michaelangelo threw these at me. He said my passion for flexible weapons would prove useful with them." Jerry said, waving the training nunchucks back and forth.

"Ah, yes, the nunchucks. A flexible weapon indeed, but difficult to wield if both your arms are not at full strength. An especially difficult weapon for beginners."

Jerry smiled an almost sinister smile, one that bared his gleaming fangs, dripping with his own sweet poison. "Then it will be perfect for a stubborn young snake like me." He said confidently, holding the weapon taut with both hands out in front of him, venom dripping down his fangs. "I hope to soon impress you and move to something even more befitting a_ sournois petit serpent _(sneaky little serpent) like myself."

"Ah, you are eager and confident. Good. Come, let us begin our first lesson."

Leo poked his head in, wanting to see some action.

"Leonardo, would you like to join us? I would see how you train with young Jerry." Splinter said, noticing his son.

"Ah! Oh, um, okay, sure. Why not?" Leo stepped all the way inside, pulling up a pair of training swords from the rack on the wall, putting his own metal katanas down in their place. "I don't want to accidentally slice Jerry's fingers off." He said, laughing a little.

"I am glad to train with you, Leonardo, but do go easy on me, _oui, non? _I am still not fully recovered from my ordeal and I know you lead your brothers."

"You could tell, huh?"

"I may be half-blind, but I am not stupid, Leonardo. I am more perceptive than most. Plus, it wasn't hard to tell, the way even Raphael bows to your will." Jerry said, tapping his blind eye.

Leo snorted in laughter. "My will ain't the only thing Raph bows to." He mumbled half to himself, a snarky grin adorning his features.

"_Quoi?" _(What?)Jerry said, brow furrowed in confusion.

"Nothing, nothing. Let's get started. I'm just gonna come at you, and I want to see where you are in defending yourself, okay?" Leo said. Splinter nodded his approval.

"_Oui, oui. _Lead the way, Leonardo."

The sparring began with Leo charging at Jerry, training sword raised. Jerry coiled himself tightly and sprang away from the attack, using his tail like a springboard. He twisted in midair, swinging the nunchucks over his head and to the side, cracking Leo in the arm as the blue-masked ninja raised an arm to defend his face. Leo responded by spinning on his heel and catching Jerry in the abdomen with the wooden sword, breaking his flight mid-air and causing him to tumble unceremoniously to the ground. Jerry caught Leo's left ankle in his tail and pulled, and Leo went flying backwards, doing a complete backflip and a half before landing on his shell and rocking for a moment. He used the momentum to spring back up onto both feet and take a large overhead swing with his sword, only to have Jerry catch the sword in the nunchucks' chain. Leo pushed harder with his swords, trying to break Jerry's defense. Jerry simply pushed back with all his might, a perfect example of what happened when an unstoppable force met an immovable object.

Leo could sense Jerry's defense begin to weaken. He pushed harder still, until Jerry's injured arm gave way and the nunchucks flew back, hitting him in the face. This caused Leo to fall forward on top of him. Jerry hissed loudly and coiled his abdomen, flipping over so he was on top, crushing Leo into the floor. He wrapped his body around Leo, pinning him to the floor like a constrictor.

A claw around his throat and chest and fangs near his eyes, Leo yielded, unable to breathe. Jerry got off of him, and Leonardo gasped sharply.

"Not bad, my students. Not a bad fight. Jerry, we will work on your defense using your bad arm another time. For now, see Donatello. He will re-bandage you."

_"Défense ? Que faites-vous parler, de la défense ? Je l'ai battu !" _(Defense? What are you talking about, defense? I beat him!) Jerry said indignantly, pointing a thumb over his shoulder at Leo, who was just getting up.

"Why do I have a feeling that was insulting?"

"Boys! Jerry, your arm is still weak, and now you are bleeding heavily from your burn. See Donatello. Leonardo, do not worry. You will have another chance."

Jerry scrunched his face up and slithered away, holding his arm in pain. He was dripping blood and some black liquid onto his own tail from his arm.

"Did you understand what he said, Master?"

"Parts of it. He has been teaching me bits and pieces of his language, as I have been teaching him ours. I believe he asked me why I was talking about his defense or something along those lines."

Leo grunted, crossing his arms.

"My son," Splinter started, "I sense a great darkness in the air around the young serpent. He is hurting, but does not want to admit it. He is stubborn. The pain in his heart is great, and soon I fear it will overwhelm his mind."

"Shell, Jerry, what do you keep doing to yourself? You don't want to keep reopening the wound, it heightens the risk of infection." Donny said.

"I was training with Leonardo and Master Splinter. I pinned your brother to the floor, you know. Had my fangs at his face and everything. I do not want to, how you say... 'toot my own horn', but it really was quite fun." Jerry said, smiling.

"Ha-ha, really? It's quite hard to take Leo down; you should be proud of yourself." Donny said lightly, wrapping a clean bandage around Jerry's arm.

"I am happy I was able to use my body to the fullest of its potential in the form I am in." Jerry said.

"Don't say that yet." Leo piped in, walking towards the medical bed, "You've still got a long way to go before you're at your full potential. Once your burns heal more, and you're able to use your arm better, your defense will get better, leaving you less open to fatal strikes."

"I defeated you today, though. I thought my offense was pretty good."

"Offensive moves aren't everything. Sometimes you need to double back and regroup with a defensive strategy. It's true that the best defense is a good offense, but sometimes the best offense is a good defense. What happened was a good first test of your abilities, but we still have a long way to go. And yes, while it is true that you did, in fact, hand me my shell on a silver platter earlier, that doesn't mean that will happen to everything you come across. You beat me because you're unpredictable and fast, which are good qualities of a ninja, but you also need a level head and the ability to know when enough is enough, which I certainly didn't see there." Leo said sternly, hand rubbing his throat where Jerry's claw had cut off his oxygen. "You're hot-headed and cold-blooded, and I don't mean that in the biological sense. I'm not trying to be mean, Jerry. I'm just trying to tell you your faults so we can work on improving them together. What do you say?"

Jerry hissed low in his throat and glared at Leonardo, but managed to keep his cool and nod._ "Je me demande ce que vous allez dire une fois que j'ai le cou dans mon palais , des tortues ..." _(I wonder what you'll say when I have your neck in my jaws, turtle...) Jerry didn't appreciate Leo's holier-than-thou attitude, and intended to let him know it. He shook his tail angrily, then got up and slid away into the shadows, leaving a split-second image of his acid-green eye and Cheshire-like fangs behind.

"I think you ticked him off, Leo." Donny said.

"No shell. I dunno what he said, but it sounded threatening."

"You did kind of have a holier-than-thou edge to your voice there, you know. I don't think he appreciated being treated like a child, not after what he's been through." Donny said.

"I didn't mean to sound that way. I'm the leader and I'm trying to act like one, that's all. I want Jerry to be the strongest he can be so he can help us, and we can help him."

"I know, but remember what he's gone through. It might be a little prudent to show a little more restraint towards him. He doesn't seem to share the brotherly buddy thing the four of us have, and if he gets mad enough I have no doubts that he will attack you, and quite possibly kill you without realizing what happened. I've been observing Jerry for a while, and although my findings have shown that he is indeed trustworthy, and has the potential to be a fantanstic friend and ally, after Annabella's death he seems to have become increasingly unstable. I've found him muttering to himself, holding full conversations in the mirror with his own reflection, and having moments of blackouts where he'll inexplicably smash something or scream obscenities, then not realize it had happened." Donny explained, pulling out his PDA and going over a few things. "He's not evil or anything, he's just fragile. I think he always was, and his sister's death sort of put him over the edge. He can go from sweet to sour in seconds. Very split-personality, very bi-polar." Donny said.

"Shell, I had no idea. Why didn't he exhibit that behavior when we were sparring? I would think something like that would appeal to this... darker half you're talking about."

'It was a controlled environment with training weapons. It wasn't a real fight. If we bring Jerry to a fight with the Foot clan or the Purple Dragons or something, I doubt he'll be able to hold himself in restraint. I think the only thing keeping him from going completely insane is his injuries holding him back."

Leonardo shook his head. "So what do we do?"

"Just be nice to him. Instead of saying 'Your defense is weak, do this' say 'that was good, but this is even better!' and show him a new move. I think his psyche will start to even out once he's really sure he has a home and friends here. I think he's just suffering from severe depression. I, sadly, don't have any access to medication or anything to even him out, so our best bet is to just be nice to him and hope it works out for the best. Don't baby him, though. I don't think he likes that."

"Right. Gentle, but not soft." Leo repeated.

"Just make him feel at home here."

"I'll keep that in mind. Any idea where he disappeared to?"

"He usually disappears to my room because he likes to stare into the floor-length mirror I've got in there," Donny started, noticing Leo's amused look, "Don't ask, it was Mikey's idea. If you hear him talking to himself, just flick the light switch on, that usually snaps him out of it. If that doesn't work, just tap him on the shoulder or something. He'll be fine."

"Alright, thanks Donny. I'll go apologize for being callous." Leo said, walking off in the direction of Donny's bedroom/mechanical haven.

_"Pouvez-vous entendre les cloches , maman ? Je peux les entendre. Puis Annabella les entendre aussi? Assurez-vous qu'elle entend les cloches , Maman . Elle a toujours aimé les cloches , maman ... Je peux entendre les cloches , peut-elle ?" _(Can you hear the bells, Mama? I can hear them. Can Annabella hear them too? Make sure she can hear the bells, Mama. She always loved the bells, Mama. I can hear the bells... can she?)

Leo heard Jerry talking aimlessly to himself, and when he looked inside Donny's room, Jerry was not staring at the mirror, but was instead sprawled out on Donny's bed, staring at the wall. Upon Leo entering the room, Jerry's head twisted around to view the intruder. His expression softened to an almost sickly-sweet smile, and his pupil dilated until it was almost round rather than its normal slit-shape. The hair fell away from his face, revealing his horrible burns. _"Oh , maman ... Il a été pendant tant d'années . Tu ne reconnais pas votre bébé ?" _(Oh, mama... it has been so many years. Don't you recognize your baby?) Jerry said, lifting himself and holding out his arms for a hug.

Leo was frozen, unable to make a decision.

_"Maman , qu'est-ce ? Maman ? Maman ? Pourquoi ne m'aimes-tu? Qu'ai-je fait de mal?" _(Mama, what's wrong? Mama? Mama? Why don't you love me? What did I do wrong?) Jerry asked, getting up from the bed and slithering towards Leo in lurching motions that reminded Leo in the back of his mind of someone limping.

Leo bolted, slamming the door behind him, hearing Jerry's quiet sobs echo through the night.


	5. Chapter 5

Note: 'Kay, so, that last chapter made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up... and I was the one who wrote it! We delve deeper into Jerry's mysterious freak-outs more in this chapter.

Also, reference to the 4Kids animated series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles season 4, episode 19, "Insane in the Membrane" appears in this chapter, believed by many to be one of the creepiest episodes in TMNT history, and was actually not aired by 4Kids due to the carnival of horror it would have unleashed upon the children. They still put it on the DVD though.

God damn I am such a nerd. Better yet, I'm a nerd starting college tomorrow (I'm writing this intro at 10:43 PM on September 7th, 2010. When you read it, it will probably be considerably after that, and so let it be known that I, Droiture LeReve, started college at 8 AM on September 8th, 2010) so these updates will in fact be less and less frequent until they stop altogether like they did on all my other unfinished fanfics that I promised I'd get to and never did because I'm horrifically lazy.

I STILL DON'T OWN TMNT. I WILL KEEP SAYING THIS IN EVERY CHAPTER UNTIL PEOPLE BELIEVE ME.

_**Rêveur de Toute Beauté (Beautiful Dreamer)**_

"It was horrible, Raph. I felt so bad for him, but I didn't know what to do. I just bolted like an idiot. He was crying and banging on the door all night. Donny slept in my room last night; that's why I slept on the couch. I don't even think he remembers now. He woke up this morning with no idea why he was in Donny's room or how he got there." Leo explained to Raph on the rooftop of some abandoned warehouse. "Donny said he was bi-polar or something."

"I dunno Leo, that sounds more like a split personality or somethin'. You said he doesn't even rememba', right?" Raph asked.

"No. He woke up this morning, chipper as usual going 'Allo, mes amis!' and saying how he didn't remember falling asleep in Donny's room last night. Then he made himself breakfast and went to go train with Master Splinter." Leo said, imitating Jerry's thick French accent very badly, complete with dramatic, wooden hand motions and a goofy comedic expression.

"That's real weird, Leo. What was 'e sayin'?"

"I don't know! He was crying something about his mother in French, but that's all I got. I'm pretty sure 'Mama' is universal in all languages. I'm sure the security cams got it and I could make Donny run it through a translator but that's a lot of effort and it seemed like he just mistook me for his mom and started talking to me... I really have no idea, Raph, I don't speak French with any sort of fluency whatsoever." Leo said.

"Man, it sounded like he was having a flashback or somethin'. Remember when we were fighting Stockman, and he was going after April, and kept calling her "mama" and kept trying to kill her? It might have been like that."

"I don't know, it didn't seem like he was attacking me. In fact, he was crying and holding his arms out like he just wanted a hug. I should have hugged him, Raph. I should have just stood there and hugged him or something."

Raph slipped his arms around Leo's shoulders and rested his head on Leo's as the two of them looked out at the twinkling New York City skyline in the sunlight. Leo reached up and gently held Raph's wrists.

"You couldn't have known, man. Just calm down. If he doesn't remember, there's no need for ya to worry about it. If Donny says he has these freak-outs 'cause he doesn't feel safe, then we need to make him feel safe. Move yer stuff into my room and let Jerry have yours. I got enough room. That'll get him outta the open part o' the lair, so he'll feel more protected. Give 'im some padded armor to wear durin' trainin'. Make him food once'n a while. I mean, he cooks for us all the time, y'know? And he tries to do all the chores. I think if we just made him dinner once in a while, he'll feel better. He's kinda the type to appreciate the little things. Maybe he just needs to feel like he's contributin', ya know?" Raph suggested.

Leo nodded. "Every single one of those ideas was excellent, Raph. Thanks. I'll do that. You really are a great brother." Leo stood up, kissed Raph on the temple, and fled off down the side of the building, sliding down the sewer pipe. Raph smirked and grunted, diving in after him.

"Yeah, I better get some kinda reward for this. You know I hate doin' my own thinkin'."

"Don't worry, I plan to properly thank you for your brilliant mind." Leo said cheekily, opening the door to the Lair.

They were greeted by the sweet smell of baked goods. _"__Bonjour, mes amis ! J'ai fait des biscuits !" _(Hello, my friends! I made biscuits!) Jerry called, a cute, innocent smile on his melted visage. He seemed to indeed have no recollection of the previous night. He pulled a tray of baked rolls out of the oven, steaming hot and smelling like something from Heaven itself. Truth be told, Jerry was a fabulous cook.

Leo and Raph salivated at the thought of biscuits, and ran towards them. As they sat eating biscuits, Leo revealed his plan to let Jerry stay in his bedroom.

"It's further in from the outer perimeter, so you won't be so exposed like you are on the couch."

"_Non, non! _(No, no!) I could not! Where would you go?" Jerry asked. "I could not ask for that!"

"Raph's letting me stay in his room. He's got room for an extra person in there. We wanted to make you feel more at home, Jerry."

"Oh, _mon ami... _I do not know what to say! You are very kind to me... you did not have to!" Jerry insisted, tilting his head. His pupil dilated and he seemed to be struck with a sudden headache. He blinked hard, forcing his burned eyelid to close and grabbed at his skull, tripping off to the side and nearly collapsing.

"Whoops!" Raph grabbed a hold of Jerry's arm and lifted him back upright. "Looks like Master Splinter's got ya trainin' pretty good. Looks like you didn't hurt yourself again, though."

"_M-Mais oui... _(B-But, yes...) I feel a bit odd... Like there is something inside my head. I... need to lie down..." Jerry wobbled off, slithering towards the couch, mumbling to himself in French.

"I see whatcha mean, Leo. He is actin' a bit weird." Raph said. "I mean, we can clearly hear him talking to himself."

"We need to talk more with Donny about this. He's supposed to be the smart one." Leo said, walking off towards Donny's room, where Donny was currently reviewing a few of the video files from the freak-out described by Leo that Jerry had suffered the night before. Raph watched him go, then shrugged and returned to eating biscuits. Shell, Jerry was an awesome cook.

"Leo, these are both incredible and terrifying. I ran the files through a language translator and came up with some interesting discoveries." Donny said in full geek-mode, typing away at his monitor.

"Like...?" Leo drawled, urging Donny to continue.

"Like, one, that I need to update the language translator on my computer system because it kept translating everything Jerry said backwards, and two, that once I flipped the audio around I realized he was having some sort of flashback to his childhood."

"Funny, Raph said the same thing after I told him what happened."

"The most interesting thing though is what seems to have triggered the flashback. I was watching video from before you walked into the room, and it seems my alarm bell rang to remind me to update the passwords on my computer, like it does every week. I was out of the room at the time and didn't hear it, but the sound of the bell ringing seems to set him off. I figured that out when I heard what he was saying. 'Can you hear the bells, Mama? I can hear them. Can Annabella hear them too? Make sure she can hear the bells, Mama. She always loved the bells, Mama. I can hear the bells... can she?' He then went on, after you entered the room, to ask if you, having been mistaken for 'Mama' recognized him, and asked why 'Mama' didn't love him, and asked 'What did I do wrong?' I'm not sure how this ties in with the bells or Annabella, but something sure happened in this poor snake's past to turn him into this shadow of a snake we're dealing with now. Oh, that sounded insensitive, didn't it? I didn't mean 'dealing with'. That was kind of harsh." Donny said, apologetically.

"Jeez. I didn't realize the sweet, smiley guy who just served me and Raph fresh-baked biscuits was in fact a messed-up psychopath." Leo said.

"Well, maybe 'psychopath' isn't the right word. He doesn't seem to be overly violent or homicidal, just scared. When he has these moments, even if you attack him, he won't fight back. It simply won't occur to him as a possibility, possibly because he never fought back as a child. If he mistakes you for his mother in these moments, there's a high chance his mother wasn't exactly a nominee for Mother of the Year award, and there's also a high chance that was the reason he took Annabella and fled France in the first place."

"I thought he said he was looking for other mutants."

"He might have been lying. He stumbled upon us by chance, that much was obvious when Mikey told us how he reacted to Mikey's help. He was scared and didn't know how to react. That means he didn't actually expect to find other mutants in the area, and was lying to cover his tracks, hoping to take his leave of us as soon as possible, with us none the wiser. When we promised to find his sister, it prompted him to stay longer to see if we could be trusted. When we offered him a home after Annabella's death, he stayed because he had no other home left, but he didn't tell us the truth out of fear we'd abandon him like 'Mama' did. Instead, he reacted by trying to take all the household chores for himself as a way of thanking us and distracting himself from the painful memories. The attack, his sister's death, his painful childhood, and starting a life in a new country all might have combined in his already-fragile psyche, prompting these flashbacks out of stress and guilt."

Leo simply gaped at his younger brother for a few moments before declaring, "I KNEW you were the smart one for a reason!"

"Remember this is just a theory, Leo. It hasn't been proven or disproven yet. This is all based on speculation, not fact, and even if it were 100 percent true, I wouldn't go announcing it to the world. There's a good chance Jerry doesn't want those memories re-lived or brought up, hence the reason he doesn't remember having flashbacks." Donny said.

"Wait, but I thought Jerry said he was mutated due to the TGRI ooze, and his sister was born that way. Was the mother mutated too?"

"She would have to be, I suppose. Given the nature of the flashbacks, I would say she was. Perhaps the whole family was mutated, but the only one Jerry cared about saving was his sister. Again, Leo, I don't know if any of this is true, I'm just making an educated guess based on the data I've already received." Donny repeated.

There was a loud crash, and some creative swearing in French. Raph burst into the room, panting heavily. "Foot clan... ninja... took Jerry... three dead... more coming... gotta help him!" Raph said between breaths.

"What?" Donny exclaimed, rushing out, Leo right behind him.

_"Aide-moi, Donny ! Il en a tellement!" _(Help me, Donny! There are so many!) Jerry shouted, Donny's face the first he saw.

"I'm coming, Jerry!" Donny responded, despite not knowing anything of what Jerry said besides Donny's own name.

Donny rushed to grab the injured and restrained snake lying on the floor. Just after Jerry yelled, one ninja reached down and clamped his mouth shut with his hand, and through his twisted jaw, Jerry could no longer open his mouth. He mumbled frantically, eyes wide. He was bound by ropes and chains, heavy padlocks weighing him down. His tail was held firmly by three ninjas.

The Foot member who seemed to be leading the group put up a hand, stopping Donny in his tracks. "We were hired to simply capture the subject, not pick a fight with you Turtles. You will not see us or your friend again. Good day." The ninjas dragged Jerry away. Jerry screamed a muffled scream through the Foot ninja's hands.

"NO! We were too late!"

Then, from the shadows, a large bang and a slam was heard, and a slice of ivory against flesh. One ninja screamed out in agony as his insides were melted and liquified. Jerry pulled his fangs out of the ninja's neck and flipped around, trying to grab the other one in his powerful jaws.

"I may not be able to use my arms but you have not killed me and that means I can still fight!" Jerry yelled. The turtles rushed out to help him. They dived into the middle of the pack of Foot ninja, protecting Jerry's body with their own.

"Jerry, we're here for you. We won't let you down!"

Leo sliced the ropes off of Jerry, and Donatello got to work on picking the metal locks on the chains while Mikey and Raph held them off. As soon as Jerry's arms were free, he grinned wickedly, his eyes going round once more, and laughed like a maniac as he coiled himself, using his own body as a spring to launch himself over the turtle's heads and grabbing one of Mikey's nunchucks off his belt in the process, whipping himself around and using both the nunchucks and his own body as weapons, taking out Foot after Foot. The turtles joined in to watch the snake's back.

_"Vous ne serez jamais me faire descendre ! Vous êtres humains pris ma lumière , et maintenant l'obscurité qui reste va détruire tous!" _(You will never take me down! You humans took my light away, and now the darkness that's left will destroy you all!) Jerry screamed, raking his claws brutally down some poor sap's face, and leaving behind nothing but a ruined visage on a dead corpse. _"Votre sort est peinte dans le sang! Sang je vais utiliser pour peindre les murs cramoisis !" _(Your fates are painted in blood! Blood I will use to paint the walls crimson!)

"Guys, I don't know what he's saying, but it doesn't sound good." Mikey commented, kicking an attacking ninja away.

Raph nearly buckled down and vomited as Jerry sank his large fangs into a ninja's side, and the ninja's insides came pouring out from beneath his mask as they liquified inside him due to Jerry's corrosive venom. "Aw, gross! Didja have to do that so close to me, Jerry? Aw... that's so disgustin'!" He commented. He fell back in disgust, tripping into the garbage. His hand hit an old bicycle bell, rusty but still usable.

_Chingalingaling!_

Suddenly, Jerry screamed and stopped attacking, dropping the nunchucks and falling, holding his head and whimpering. _"M-Maman... M-Maman! Arrêter , maman ! Je ne sais pas ce que je fait de mal ! Pourquoi êtes-vous m'attaquer, maman?" _(M-Mama...M-Mama! Stop, Mama! I don't know what I did wrong! Why are you attacking me, Mama?)

"Shell! He's gone into another flashback! Turtles, protect him until we can snap him out of it!" Leo instructed. They dived back in front of Jerry in a square formation, their shells to him. They covered him as closely as possible, weapons out.

**Mama! Mama! Mamas everywhere... Why are there so many? Why am I seeing so many? Why is Mama here? Mama is gone. Mama died. I remember! Why is Mama here? Why is Mama hurting me again? Annabella's dead. She died. Why is Mama here? Why is Mama everywhere? Why was Mama in Donny's room? Why was Mama always in Donny's room? I saw Mama staring back at me. Mama always stares... Why are you judging me, Mama? Why did Mama always ring the bell? I hate bells! Mama, stop it! Mama, stop attacking me! You usually don't attack until Thursday. Why can't I hit you? Mama, stop! Mama! Mama! Mama!**

**Mama...**

**...**

"Jerry...? Jerry?"

Jerry slowly opened his good eye and found four turtles staring down at him in concern. "Ugh... _ma tête ... _(my head...)" Jerry said. _"Que s'est-il passé?" _(What happened?)

"Dude, we're in Brooklyn. You've gotta speak English." Mikey commented jokingly.

"I remember... I was angry. The humans... but then... nothing."

"You had a flashback. You've been having them for months. Apparently the sound of bells sets you off. You start talking about your mother." Donny explained, but left his words intentionally vague.

"I... I what?" Jerry asked.

"You've been having flashbacks. Psychotic episodes where you're re-living something that's happened to you before. It happens quite commonly in those suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder." Donny said in his best geek-voice.

"Post... Post-what? Donny, I am afraid I do not understand." Jerry said, sitting up. "What are you talking about, Donny? What is going on? Why did those ninja attack me?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. You'll get all the answers to your questions as I figure them out." Donny said, gently pushing Jerry back down. Jerry realized he was on something soft, and looked around. The room came into focus. He was in what appeared to be Leo's room, but it was cleaned out, save for a futon and the holes in the walls where posters used to hang.

"I told you I was going to let you have my room, Jerry. I cleaned it out and moved my stuff into Raph's room while you were out. Luckily I didn't have that much stuff to move." Leo said, chuckling a little as Raph smirked.

"I... I'm sorry you went through the trouble." Jerry said meekly, casting his eyes downward. "I don't deserve it."

"We told you, it's not any trouble at all. You always think everything's a huge chore for us. It's really not, Jerry. We're willing to do whatever it takes to stop these flashbacks and prevent them." Donny said.

"But...But I still don't..."

"You don't understand, we know, and it's ok. We're going to help you understand." Donny said calmly, holding Jerry firmly but gently by the shoulders. "We promise."

"You... make so many promises..." Jerry said with a twinge of bitterness in his voice.

"And we intend to honor every single one of them. A ninja turtle doesn't make promises he cannot keep." Leo said.

"I don't deserve your kindness."

"Don't say that, Jerry. Of course you do. In fact, you probably deserve better. But you're stuck with the ninja turtles, so let us help you."

Jerry closed his eyes and absentmindedly picked at his broken, peeling burn scar, healed over by now but not fully restored. Jerry knew deep down that his skin would never look or function the same way. There was just too much scar tissue. "_Oui... _I... I am sorry. Please accept my apology."

"It's us who should be sorry. We didn't take into account what you were going through. We didn't realize how stressed out you must have been feeling." Donny said. "But no more. We are gonna help you."

"What if those black-clad ninja come back for me?"

"We don't doubt that they will. But we will repel them every single time... even if they do know where we live."

"Ah, shell, I don't wanna move again..." Raph whined.

"We're not going to, Raph, we're staying right the shell here and taking the Foot on by ourselves if we have to. We've done it a thousand times, and we'll do it a thousand more." Leo responded. "We won't abandon our home again."

Leo's words echoed through the room and reverberated off the walls, and Jerry had to hold back his tears.

_**Annabella ... pouvez-vous entendre du ciel ? **_(Annabella... can you hear this from Heaven?)


	6. Chapter 6

Note: These last couple of chapters have been awesomely long, internet, I apologize. I know your internet brains can't handle it. I'm kidding, I love you (please be literate gaaaah I go to community college and there are IDIOTS EVERYWHERE). My first draft of this chapter sucked, so here's the like, 612th draft. It was ridiculously hard to write because college gets in the way of everything.

The next chapter is upon us. If you haven't noticed, I've been trying to write them all one after the other in a vain attempt to get this story completed before my TMNT nerd fetish dies down and I'm stuck with YET ANOTHER half-completed fanfic.

I'm so lazy.

I also understand that I widely overuse the words "dude" and "bro", but I don't know what else to use.

This lazy bitch does not own TMNT or anything related to it. All I own is Jerry. That's it. Seriously. End of discussion. No questions. None. Nada. Zip. Niente. Ze + Ro.

**Je N'ai Jamais eu Cœur Avant (I Never Had a Heart Before)**

"Come on, dude, if you keep staring into space all the time, you're never gonna get upgraded past the 'chucks, man!" Mikey called. He was training with Jerry, one nunchuck-weilder against another.

Jerry snapped back to his senses. "_Quoi? Euh... oh." _Jerry flipped back around into a fighting pose. "Sorry, Michaelangelo, I was lost in my thoughts."

"Yeah, dude, I kinda noticed." Mikey said. "Dude, you've got to pay more attention. A real ninja enemy isn't gonna tell you when you're spacin' out, ya know? He's just gonna hand you your shell on a silver platter."

_"__Je n'ai pas une coquille , mon ami ." _Jerry said cheekily. (I don't have a shell, my friend.)

"Yeah, but dude, you totally knew what I meant."

Over the months Jerry had been living with the Turtles, they had learned to pick up his language through context clues and Donny's translator software. Their grasp of it wasn't perfect, but it was good enough that they could confuse enemy ninjas by giving basic orders to each other in French, a language the Foot clan were not familiar with. Not really complex orders, but basic orders like "Stop", "Go", "Attack", and "Retreat" were among the one-word orders that Leonardo had learned to master. It turned out to be a very effective technique, and one that Leo planned on getting more familiar with. Any technique that confused the shell out of Foot ninjas was a technique filed under Leo's Mental Sticky Notes, cross-referenced with F for French, J for Jerry, and W for Why Didn't We Think of This Before.

Yes, Leo's brain actually cross-referenced itself when needed. He prided himself on a fast an efficient brain system.

"Hm." Jerry made a noncommittal sound, staring past Michaelangelo's shoulder.

"Dude, you don't seem to thrilled about training today."

"No. No, I am fine. Do not worry about me. I am... tired. I'm just tired." Jerry said dully, slithering away.

"Dude? Dude!" Mikey called, as Jerry dropped his nunchucks and sltihered into his room, shutting the door behind him.

Inside his room, Jerry stared at his dark, barren walls, with the small smoldering holes from where he'd shot venom in frustration. There were claw marks from when he'd thrashed out wildly, in the throes of a psychotic episode. There was his bed, a little cot, fully furnished with a thick blanket and pillow. Being a cold-blooded reptile, Jerry needed a thicker blanket than his comrades to keep him from going into hypothermic shock in the cold fall nights underground in New York. He didn't like it, it was scratchy and musty, but he didn't really have a choice.

Jerry sat on his little cot, wrapped himself up in his blankets, and sang to himself, a simple little song that he had made up years ago by himself, to sing Annabella to sleep on the long cargo-hold ride to America. _"Je prie à la lune , afin de protéger ceux que j'aime , je prie le Dieu qui vient de plus haut, nous donner la force de l'amour et la liberté , laissez-nous aller à la terre où nous serons libres ..." _(I pray to the moon, to protect the ones I love, I pray to the God that hails from above, give us the strength for love and liberty, let us go to the land where we will be free...)

He admitted now that it sounded better in English than it did in French, but he had to translate it into French for his sister's sake. He shrugged, got up, and decided to climb somewhere high up to sleep for a while. He liked being off the ground. He had always dreamed about flying. He slithered up the wall, using broken bits of wall as hand-holds, and jumped onto the broken chandelier. He curled around it, and quickly fell in a heap, closing his eyes and trying to sleep.

Mikey heard him singing and grimaced. "Dude, I hope he's just singing and not flashing back again... I should tell Donny anyway." Mikey rushed off to Donny's room. He was going to knock on the door, but it whizzed open as he brought his fist up. "Dude... magic door?" Mikey asked.

"Dude, magic security camera?" Donny retorted mockingly in the same surfer-voice, pointing up at the monitor which showed the outside of Donny's door and the hallway. "I opened the door remotely, you doof. Now what did you want?"

"Dude, you're being hostile today." Mikey replied.

"I'm not being hostile, I'm being deprived of sleep." Donny said, finally turning and looking at Mikey.

"Yikes!"

Donny had bags under his eyes, a pale complexion, and generally looked haggard, like he was very tired and hadn't slept in days. He was slouched over, with an expression on his face of tired annoyance that seemed plastered on his green cheeks.

"Dude, what up with the shopping bags? It looks like you're carrying home the groceries on your face, bro."

"I haven't slept in two weeks, save for one half-an-hour nap before the Foot clan broke into April's antique shop."

"Oh yeaaaah, April. Whatever happened to her? I haven't seen her around in months."

"I decided to keep her and Jerry separate. With Jerry's obvious (and somewhat violent, I may add), dislike and distrust of humans, I figured letting him know we were friends with more than a few would set him off. He'd probably call us traitors and run off, probably get himself killed. He's impulsive like that."

"Oh. So what happened with April?"

"The Foot broke into her antique shop and demanded she give them the new passwords for the security system I've set up down here. She didn't know the passwords so they forced her to call me anyway. I traced the call and showed up to kick some shell."

"How many were there?"

"Only about ten of them, but I learned that Casey didn't handle it himself because he was on the other side of the city at work."

"Oh." Mikey shrugged. "Anyway, that's not why I came, dude. I wanted to tell you Jerry was all spacin' out again, and then he wandered off into his room and started singing in French. Sounded like a lullaby or somethin', and I didn't know whether he was having an episode or not, so I came to get you. I figured we'd be on the safe side."

"Good work, Mikey. I'll go check on him." Donny said. He got up from his chair and made his way into the hallway, where it was quite apparent where Jerry had been due to the fact there was a large legless reptile hanging off broken chandelier still hanging from the ceiling, where Jerry lay curled upon it, sleeping peacefully.

"Dude, he was not up there when I came to get you." Mikey observed, staring up at the peaceful reptile.

"Where was he?"

"In his room, staring at the wall."

"Well, we've certainly trained him well, then, haven't we? The little ninja. Well, he seems to be alright." Donny said, smiling softly. He left, Mikey in tow. Jerry cracked an eye open.

"But how the shell did he get up there?" Mikey insisted before shaking his head and following after his brother. "So why haven't you been sleeping, bro? Anything I can help with?"

"I don't know, Mikey, maybe. I don't know why I can't sleep lately. General insomnia? Something more? I just can't seem to stop thinking long enough to get forty winks. I can't sleep and I don't know why."

Mikey walked up and started digging his fingers into Donny's neck. "Why don'tcha lay back and tell Mikey everything that's on your mind, bro. It'll probably make you feel better."

"You promise you won't get bored and wander away?"

"No promises, but I'll do my best, dude."

"Well okay. Right now I'm thinking about how we get Jerry to trust humans a little so I don't have to keep hiding April and Casey from him. I feel bad for both him and her. I feel bad for him because we're hiding something from him. We're not being honest with him and frankly dishonesty leaves a bad taste in my mouth. And I feel bad for her because we don't get to see her or Casey for months on end because we're down here with Jerry. It's not that I resent Jerry, not at all. _Au contraire,_ I think he's a wonderful guy and an excellent friend. I'm glad we came across him. But he's keeping us from friends we've known far longer, even if he doesn't realize it. I don't know what to do."

Mikey's mouth twitched in concern. He gave Donny a hug from behind. "It'll be okay, dude. We just need to come out and tell Jerry about April and Casey. Explain that yeah, they're humans, but they're trustworthy and would never hurt or betray us. They love us. They're like family, dude."

"I'm just afraid of the backlash if I do so. Jerry's so fragile and telling him news like that, that we're friends with the very creatures who were responsible for ending his sister's life and nearly ended his out of fear and prejudice... It would break him, Mikey. We think he's bad now, with his flashbacks and psychotic episodes... what would happen if he completely snapped? He could kill himself or something!"

"He's got guts and smarts. He's a smart guy, Donny, he'll understand."

"This has nothing to do with intelligence. You could tell an infant someone's friendly and they'll believe it. It's about his fragility. He's strong physically. I've seen him lift the fridge over his head to get underneath it. But his mind is like glass. His body is steel, but his mind, his psyche... A blow like that could kill him psychically. His mind is haphazard, like a fractal made up of smaller pieces, each piece another event in his life that made him who he is today. Each piece shakily held together with wishes and dreams, but with no logic or hope to seal the cracks. Without those wishes and dreams, he'd be completely destroyed. I've never met anyone else so strong, but so..." Donny trailed off, not able to find the word he needed.

". . .Broken?" Mikey suggested softly.

"Exactly. I've been doing research and I believe he's got paranoid schizophrenia, but... I don't know, I don't have a degree or anything, so I could be wrong."

_fwp... _

Mikey and Donny's eyes darted towards the door, and scampered towards it. As they bolted for the door, they noticed a distinct black-and-green tail slipping past the entryway, out of the lair.

"Jerry, no!"

"Shell, he must have been listening!"

"What's all the yelling?" Leo called tiredly, stumbling out of the bedroom he and Raph now shared. Raph was following him, but instead of a look of adorable innocent tiredness on his face, it was a look of pure annoyance and anger at being woken up.

"Jerry heard us talking about April and Casey and has run off." Donny explained quickly. "We have to go after him! The Foot are still looking for us. If he makes his way to the surface with those Foot ninja crawling around, it'll be the end of him!"

"My sons, please be patient." Splinter piped in, coming from the dojo.

"He could get killed out there! He was almost killed once, who knows what could happen to him now?" Donny replied frantically.

"Donatello, calm your mind. We have taught the young serpent well. He needs time. He will not allow himself to be captured."

"Time? You're talking about time? We don't have time! He's fucking schizophrenic!" Donny shouted angrily, grabbing his bo staff and running out the door after the legless reptile.

"Shell. I have never heard Donny curse before. It's weird." Mikey noted. Raph and Leo simply stood, mouths agape at their purple-masked brother.

"Give them both time, my sons. Donatello will come back with Jerry. We have no choice but to wait and see under what circumstances Jerry returns."

"We'll try, Master Splinter, but forgive us if we can't help being concerned." Leo said.

"I understand, my sons. But worry not. Donatello is smart and strong. He will succeed." Splinter said, going back in his room to meditate.

_**Trahison ... Doulour ... Pourquoi?**_

(Betrayal... Pain... Why?)


	7. Chapter 7

Note: Poor Jerry's nuts, isn't he? Don't worry, he'll be fine... Or will he?

This is a really short one, folks! I have to brush up on my ancient Greek history, you know.

God college gets in the way of EVERYTHING. I'm only taking two classes a day, but JEEZ. Between a professor that makes watching paint dry more exciting than the Super Bowl and an angry old lady professor who acts like the nuns that used to follow you around with a ruler in Sunday school, it's a miracle I still have creative juices left in my dried out brain.

I don't own TMNT. I don't. It's a fact. I own Jerry. That's all. I don't own TMNT. Or Mario, since a reference to that appears in this chapter. Yeah, I'm quite paranoid. Living where I do will do that to you.

**Mais Par les Dieux , ai-Je L'aime ... (But By the Gods, Did I Love Him...)**

Donny didn't know how long he had been running. He didn't even realize whether it was night or day. He didn't hear the terrified screams of the general populace, or the sound of children crying. He didn't hear the angered shouts to "take off the damn costume, Halloween was three months ago, you freak!" He didn't notice the cold, or the wind, or the snow threatening to bury him beneath a tomb of white. He took little notice in the ever-increasing numbness of his fingers and toes as he ran, eyes wide, frantically searching for the black-and-green cobra that had run from them. He focused on the trail of black liquid in front of him, tiny droplets that melted the snow and stained it warm grey as it seeped in. It wasn't venom, as venom would have not only melted the snow but the concrete sidewalk underneath it, but black tears within the rutted trail of a slithering serpent. Soon, however, the trail ended, and Donny found himself unable to follow any lead. His mind was blank, his eyes wide, breathing heavily from exhaustion.

He could see his breath in the air in front of him, and suddenly realized that if Jerry were out in this weather, he would soon die of hypothermia, being a cold-blooded reptile. Donny's footsteps quickened further, as he wall-jumped between buildings like something from a Mario game. He took off across the rooftops, panting heavily as he sprinted across them at top speed. All he could hear was Jerry's pained voice in his head, his imagination asking _"Pourquoi? Pourquoi m'as-tu trahi ? Pourquoi ne pas vous soucier de moi ?" _(Why? Why did you betray me? Why don't you care about me?)

Tears that fell from Donny's eyes froze quickly to his green face in the biting wind, causing icicles to form on his cheeks. _"Êtes-vous ici ? Je cherche pour vous!" _(Are you out here? I'm looking for you!) Donny cried out in French desperately, his French a bit broken and heavily American accented, but at least it was a complete sentence. "Jerry, answer me! I'm sorry! _Je suis désolé !" _(I'm sorry!)

Donny's vision began to swim, his head began to pound, and his heartbeat became loud and thunderous in the stark white air. He stopped and fell to his knees, coughing up a storm. **So that's it, huh? I'm going to die out here... Why did you run off, Jerry? Why couldn't I stop you? Were you sane or hardly lucid? **Donny thought grimly. **Would you save me if I tried to die? Would that get you to come back? **He thought. He tried to project his thoughts outward, remembering the mind-bond Jerry had with his sister, and hoping with all his heart that he could forge some kind of connection himself. He decided to send out a telepathic final message. A poem, hopefully not the last he'd write, but as of now, the only one that mattered.

**He was strange and somewhat morbid**

**Had a brain like something sordid**

**Broken into pieces grim**

**But by the Gods, did I love him...**

Before Donny's vision turned black, he sensed a pulse of pure sadness and desperation flow back into his mind, along with one word.

_**Pourquoi? **_(Why?)

When Donny awoke, it was in the Lair, surrounded by his brothers. "What...what happened?" He rasped. He realized he was tucked into Jerry's warm quilt, surrounded by candles for warmth.

"I don't know, Donny, you tell us." Leo said. "You nearly froze to death out there. We heard a knock at the door, and when we answered it, you were there in a frozen heap, with this in your hand."

Leo handed Donny a note that was soggy from being snowed on, but legible nonetheless.

_Je savais une tortue de métro_

_Qui avait un cerveau comme nul j'avais vu_

_Il m'a dit que je voulais dire le monde à lui_

_Et par le doux nom de Belle , je savais que c'était vrai_

(I knew a turtle underground

Who had a brain like none I'd seen

Told me I meant the world to him

And by sweet Belle's name, I knew it was true)

Donny couldn't understand the letter, but he knew it to be a response to his poetry. He got up, rushed to his computer, and inputted the words. When he got the English translation back, he nearly cried. "He found me. He found me out there and brought me home but... He didn't come back." It wasn't a question. There was no painful desperation. It was a fact, a cold reality that cut through Donny's skin and bones like no icy wind ever could. Donny was frozen in place, unable to cry or shout or move. He stared at the words on the screen, an intentionally vague poem by a half-lucid schizophrenic that sliced through Donny's soul and left him slack-jawed and blank. The words on the screen seemed to mock him, as if to say "I left this to tell you I'm gone forever, you jerk." or "No, I'm not going to give you a straight answer because I hate you now." or something along those lines.

Leo and Raph stared at him, also unable to speak, while Mikey sat on the couch, wordlessly staring at the wall. There was a pregnant, awkward silence that hung thick in the air. Splinter, from the balcony overseeing the main lair, shook his head in sadness before walking away.

Bracing the bitter cold and the stiffness of his limbs, Jerry slunk into the shadows, leaving the image of his eye behind for a second or two, his Cheshire Cat impression giving him a view of the manhole cover he just slid out of. He slipped inside an abandoned warehouse, and pressed against the wall, sobbing desperately as hallucinations brought on by the cold and his desperate, broken mind surrounded him and laughed mockingly at him, telling him he was worthless, a failure, that Annabella would never love a freak like him, now that he was so disfigured and she'd seen Heaven's perfection. He tried to cry back. "Annabella is dead! Why do you continue to torment me?"

"Because I love you, Droiture. I love you so much that I wish to drive you mad."

That voice was less distant and ethereal than the rest. It seemed real.

"Why, Mama? I didn't do anything! Why do you hate me?"

"Weren't you listening? I don't hate you at all. I love you so much that I want you to join your sister in the realm of Heaven!"

Sudden, sharp pain pierced his abdomen, followed by the warm, sticky rush of blood. Jerry looked down to find a large crossbow bolt pinning him to the wall. His mouth fell open, and his vision went blank. As he fell into unconsciousness, one final line shot from his mind.

**Donny, help me!**

Donny's eyes darted from his console, and suddenly he found he could move again. "Jerry!"

"What?" Leo responded in confusion.

"I heard him! I... In my head! I heard him! He asked me to help him!" Donny cried out.

"Donny, calm down. That's impossible. Jerry could be anywhere, and he's not coming back. Why are you deluding yourself?"

"Don't fucking tell me what I heard and didn't hear! I heard him! He called for my help! I'm going to find him, whether you like it or not, Leo!"

"Donny, wait, you can't-"

"Fuck you and your bossy leader bullshit!" Donny screamed uncharacteristically, grabbing a coat and a scarf and wrapping himself up. "I'm going to find him and there's not a damn thing you can do about it!"

"Let me finish! I meant you can't do this by yourself!" Leo said, as he and the others suited up for the cold as well. "We're coming with you."

"Four shells are better than one, dude." Mikey piped in.

"We all need Jerry as much as you do. Don't think you're doin' this alone, man." Raph said.

"We're a family, even him. In this bitter cold, we need each other more than ever." Leo said firmly.

Donny shook his head. "None of you understand! I need to find him! Me!"

"We all need to find him, Donny-"

_"__He was strange and somewhat morbid_

_Had a brain like something sordid_

_Broken into pieces grim_

_But by the Gods, did I love him..." _Donny recited from memory the poem that brought him home, cutting off Leo. Leo froze in place, lips still open as if to speak but words simply stopped flowing. Donny turned on his heel and ran out of the Lair, leaving the other three in his wake.


	8. Chapter 8

Note: Awwww, the sadness. Well, it can only get worse before it gets better... (tell that to the economy *coughcough*)

Fun fact: I have all of these documents, these chapters, saved on my desktop under the label "shelldude#" with the number being whatever number chapter this happens to be. This document is labeled "shelldude8". I don't know why. I was going to make Mikey a lot more ADD in the beginning and thought it would be reflecting of that.

But my Mary Sue character got in the way.

I do apologize folks. I know OC's are annoying. But IT HAD TO BE DONE. Really. The world was going to explode if I didn't. Well, implode really. Squish itself like a bag of bread on the bottom of the grocery cart. It's true. No fooling.

I still don't own TMNT, though it would be awesome if I did because I'd be swimming in money right now instead of writing crappy fanfiction.

**Faux Prétexte (False Pretense)**

"Jerry! Jerry, where are you? Please, come home! It's cold!" Donny had been searching for three days, calling out in French and English, tears freezing to his cheeks once more. He collapsed from exhaustion in an alley, behind a Dumpster, next to a warehouse. Donny looked up and saw a broken window. _Yes, a __cliché lifesavi__ng device! Finally! I'm soaked! _Donny thought as he punched out a few remaining shards of glass with his mittened fist, then dove in through the open hole. It was very dark, but Donny got the distinct sense that he was most certainly not alone. He could see his breath in the air, but it was warmer in here than it was out there in the snow.

"H-Hello? Hello!" Donny called. He couldn't see and the light from his PDA could only go so far. "Is anyone there?"

_ss-ss-ss-ss-ss... ss-ss-ss-ss-ss... _

"Hello? Is anyone there?" Donny called louder.

The faint hissing noise that Donny had chalked up to faulty pipes began to get louder. "I'm going to ask one more time." Donny called out. "Is. Anyone. There? Answer me!"

Suddenly Donny was blinded out of nowhere as all the lights in the warehouse came shooting on. A thin wire wrapped itself around his throat and pulled, choking off Donny's oxygen.

_"Saviez-vous que je serais parti pour toujours ? Pensiez-vous avoir enfin réussi à se débarrasser de moi ?" _(Did you think I'd gone forever? Did you think you'd finally gotten rid of me?)

Donny could only sit and choke as he recognized the voice, along with the face that came from the shadows. He wanted to yell out "Jerry! What's wrong with you!" in true action-flick fashion, but his throat would not let the words pass. He struggled with the wire, only serving to cut his hands. He fell to his hands and knees, staining the wooden floor with blood.

Donny's vision began to swim, and just as he thought he was going to pass out, the wire released his throat and he gasped deeply, letting air rush back into his abused lungs. Between gasping, coughing, and wheezing, he managed to ask ". . .the shell?"

_"Aimez-vous ma nouvelle maison ? Maman a fait pour moi . Maman est si bon pour moi ." _(Do you like my new home? Mama made it for me. Mama is so good to me.) Jerry said eerily calmly, tilting his head to one side and smiling as if nothing were wrong. His hair still covered his face, and as Donny looked closer he could see that Jerry's left pupil was dilated to the point where his normally acid-green iris was completely obscured by inky blackness. Donny managed to catch his breath, but almost lost it again when he looked into Jerry's eye and saw nothing. No hate, no malice, no love, no sadness. There was nothing left in his eyes, as if he were a corpse once again given life. His smile was eerie but almost reassuring, if it weren't for the creepy stare. Jerry's body was obscured in darkness, but Donny could smell the acrid stench of his venomous blood. He appeared to be just a head floating in the darkness, with only half a face revealed in light. Donny stood up slowly, his bleeding hands shaking as he inched towards Jerry slowly.

Jerry stared at him eerily, smiling in his calm, unsettling way. Donny took one slightly larger step forward and put his hand out to try and touch Jerry and make sure he was actually there, when Jerry tilted his head in the opposite direction, and before Donny could blink he was in blinding pain. Donny looked down and nearly threw up; there were thin wires piercing his hands, arms, torso, chest, and legs, suspending him in mid-air and trapping him against the wall behind him.

He knew he couldn't struggle or he'd be dead. He could feel the wires in his flesh very close to, but not touching, any vital areas. If he moved even slightly, the wires would slice through an organ or artery and he'd bleed out in seconds. As it stood, the wires themselves were making fair plugs for the holes in his body, so he wasn't bleeding as much as he thought he should have been.

"Jerry... why are you doing this?" He managed to ask quietly, without disturbing the wire that was currently embedded just under his clavicle.

_"Parce que je vais en enfer quand même. Je pourrais aussi bien vous emmener avec moi ." _(Because I'm going to Hell anyway. I might as well take you with me.) Jerry said, his pupil slitting down to normal and his smile dropping off his face in an instant, as if it were never there. He seemed to be instantly coming down from whatever half-lucid high he was experiencing before.

Donny heard gears clanking and Jerry's face moved closer and closer, as his body was revealed to be in the same state Donny's was, pinned to the wall with wires. However, it looked like Jerry had struggled a whole lot more, and was bleeding freely from multiple wounds. He also had a steel band around his head that was connected with cables to a console behind him... for what purpose, Donny couldn't figure out.

"Jesus Christ, Jerry... what happened to you? Please, talk to me in a language I can understand."

_"Je ne peux pas ... Non plus . Maman m'a dit que vous êtes mauvais ... que vous m'avez trahi . Je dois écouter Maman ... Maman sait ce qui est le mieux pour moi !" _(I can't... not anymore. Mama told me that you're bad... that you betrayed me. I have to listen to Mama. Mama knows what's best for me!) Jerry's eye seemed to be dilating and narrowing rapidly, as if he were fighting off some invading force in his head. The only problem was; the enemy was winning.

"Jerry, please, I don't understand a word you're saying! You're talking too fast, too quietly! Please, I'm in so much pain... and so are you. Please, try to speak in English! I can't process French right now." Donny asked desperately.

Jerry hung his head wordlessly.

"Please!" Donny pleaded.

_"Vous ne comprends pas . Vous n'avez jamais pu et vous ne le sera jamais . Cet endroit est à la fois de nos tombes ." _(You don't understand. You never could and you never will. This place is both our graves.)

The pain was blurring Donny's vision and making Jerry's voice seemed muffled and distant. Donny could feel his breath becoming short. Somewhere, deep in his brain, something clicked and Donny knew what Jerry had said.

"Jerry... I just want you to know I never meant to hurt you. I never meant to keep you in the dark. I wasn't trying to hurt you... I was trying to keep you from being hurt. That was my motive all along, Jerry. I never meant to deceive you... I was only trying to make you happy. I care about you, Jerry... a lot. A lot more than I should... And before we go I just wanted you to know that.

"Mikey asked me once... in secret... if I really loved you the way I do now. At the time, the idea seemed preposterous. I told him no, that you were like our brother, but nothing more. But then I began to see how the relationship between Leo and Raph changed, and grew, and I realized I didn't have to lie to myself anymore. Lucky thing, too, because I'd been lying to myself for so long I almost started to believe it.

"But I don't want to lie to you anymore, Jerry. I don't want to keep you in the dark anymore. I don't want to keep myself in the dark anymore. From the moment I met you I knew you were special. Please, don't shut me out now. If you say this place is both our graves, then so be it." Donny said, and Jerry's unblinking gaze stared at him with uncertainty and pain. "But please don't die thinking I'm the enemy."

Jerry opened his mouth to speak, but the console attached to his head flickered to life, and suddenly Jerry was being electrocuted. He screeched in agony, twitching and writhing, the wires slicing into him, but the electricity cauterizing the wounds before they can bleed.

_"What did I say about the Turtles, you stupid boy? I told you they were evil! Do not pay into the turtle's lies!" _A nasty female voice, Japanese in origin, came from all around them. A familiar voice, one that Donny recognized.

"Karai! Why are you doing this?"

_"Non! Maman, arrête! S'il vous plaît, je vais écouter ! Je vais être bon! Arrêtez de me faire de mal!" _(No! Mama, stop! Please, I'll listen! I'll be good! Stop hurting me!) Jerry screeched in agony. His venom was boiling before it could drip away, causing his already ruined flesh to smoke and sizzle. Finally the machine shut down, and Jerry hyperventilated for a few painful minutes before passing out, wheezing painfully. He was alive, but barely. Donny stared in shock at Jerry's twitching form, still giving off little sparks. His muscles were still twitching in spasms, jerking and bleeding.

"Karai! Why? Why would you hurt him like that!"

_"Because I need him. I need him to hate you! Finally... Finally I can be rid of you and fulfill what my father, the Shredder, always wanted!" _

"But you don't have to torture him! This is cruelty! He thinks you're his mother! Why would a mother do that to her son?"

_"That... thing is no child of mine, and therefore I care not what happens to him." _

"Why would you use him? He hasn't done anything to you! You've never even met him!"

_"Who do you think threw him into the sewers in the first place? My foot ninja were unmasked, blending into society. They came across this abomination and his filthy little trollop of a sister wandering around in the alleys. They formed a riot. We never meant for the little girl to die, but that was a sacrifice we deemed necessary. A bonus, if you would. With her out of the way, it was easier to control him._

_"We needed him to become unstable, to hate humans so fully that when he learned of the humans you associate with, he'd run off. However, we needed him to gain your trust first. We planted lies in his head, told him he was here to find other mutants, but slowly, our hypnosis began to wear down and he began to remember why he was really here._

_"We knew we didn't have much time left once he started having the flashbacks, so we decided to attack you directly. However, we failed. We kept monitoring him, and once he had run off and was hallucinating properly, I lured him here using the voice of his dead mother, and trapped him here. I convinced him that you were the enemy and that you needed to die. However, he's a disobedient little bastard, and I was forced to use a more direct method of controlling his behavior." _

"By piercing his flesh and electrocuting him? That's not right. That's low and cruel, Karai, even for you and your lowly Foot clan!" Donny cried. "Once I get down from here-"

_"You won't be getting down from there. Any sudden motions and you'll end up dead or worse. You can just hang there until you die."_

"My brothers will be coming for me! They won't leave me here to rot!"

_"They haven't found you yet, and you've been searching the city for days. At what point do you think they'll show up?" _

"If this little adventure is heading in the direction I think it's heading in, they should be showing up-"

As if on cue, three Turtles blasted through the windows, landing on the floor.

"Now." Donny finished.

_"WHAT? Ninja, attack!" _

Hundreds of Foot came launching out of the shadows.

"Don't worry, Donny, we got your back! We'll get you down from there!" Leo said, taking a few Foot ninja and using them as stepping-stones to reach his brother in the air. "What happened?"

"It was a trap, that's what happened." Donny explained dully as Leo cut him down, caught him, and put him in the corner. With his body so broken and full of holes, there was no way he was going to be able to fight. Leo then jumped over and cut Jerry off of his wall, then put him with Donny. Jerry opened his eye and looked up at Donny through a glassy stare.

_"I. .. l'habitude de penser Annabella a été mon ange gardien ... mais c'est vous tout au long , n'est-ce pas , Donny ?" _(I used to think Annabella was my guardian angel... but it was you all along, wasn't it Donny?) Jerry asked quietly, smiling weakly, breath labored.

"I'm not gonna let them hurt you anymore, Jerry. I swear I will protect you with my life."

_"Je suis désolé, je suis tellement cassé à l'intérieur ... Je suis désolé je me suis enfui ." _(I'm sorry I'm so broken inside... I'm sorry I ran away.)

"It's okay, you couldn't have helped it. It isn't your fault, Jerry. It never could be."

_"S'il vous plaît pardonnez un serpent stupide ..." _(Please forgive a foolish serpent...)

"You don't even need to ask."

Donny took Jerry into his arms and held him there wordlessly.

Meanwhile the fight was still raging, and the Turtles looked like they were losing. There were so many.

Donny looked up at the carnage and struggled to his feet, pulling the bits of wires out of him. "Jerry, can you stand?" He asked.

Jerry fought and struggled to get upright. "I... sink... zo..." Jerry rasped in broken English. "I am... sorry... they hurt me... until French was all I could say." He apologized slowly, enunciating his words the best he could.

"Alright." Donny took the bits of wires out of Jerry's skin and knotted them all together into a long, barbed wire. "Here. Take this. The two of us are going to defend the others."

"But what will you use?"

"This." Donny took a staff off of a dead Foot ninja.

Donny started off shaky, limping, but soon broke out into a dead run, Jerry right behind him.


	9. Chapter 9

Note: Yeah, no, we're not done yet.

I apologize fully if this chapter is in a weird style or if there's something too robotic about it. I've recently become a full-fledged Trekkie, and in my Star Trek geekdom, I seem to have latched onto Commander Spock as my favorite character, choosing to speak in his robotic, logic-voice in public nowadays, and that seems to be reflected in everything from the way I speak to the essays I'm passing in to my English Comp I professor.

I still don't own TMNT. Don't taze me, bro. Or sue me. Don't do either of those things. Electricity and lawyers do not work well together.

**Auréole Non Inclus (Halo Not Included)**

The fight was over. Four turtles and one snake left standing, hundreds of dead ninja littering the warehouse floor. Jerry looked down at himself. Blood covered him. Most of it was his own blood. "Donny... I am a mess. I do not think I will survive this night."

"Don't say that, Jerry. We'll patch you up like every time, and you'll be fine and you'll be our smiley, happy Jerry in the morning." Donny said with false hope.

"I don't..." Jerry let that sentence trail off into nothingness. "My life..." That one, too, trailed off into the abyss. "You are..."

Jerry eventually stopped speaking altogether, not finding the right words to say.

"Dude, what happened here, anyway? We came to look for you because you'd been gone for three days and we were getting worried. We tracked your signal from the Shell-Cell." Mikey said.

"We come into this old place, followin' the radar, and we find you 'n' Jerry strung up from the wall and bleedin'." Raph supplied.

"And then hundreds of Foot ninja come diving at us." Leo finished.

"I am sorry. It is all my fault we are here. I ran away because I heard Donny and Mikey talking about your human friends, and I thought you had lied to me and betrayed me... I ran away, but I fell into a trap. I thought it was my mother, but I was hallucinating and it turned out to be a Japanese woman wearing a man's samurai armor. She pinned me to the wall with piano wire and proceeded to torture me until I could no longer think for myself. She put me into a permanent psychotic state, and tried to lure Donny in to kill him. But his voice brought me out of that stupor, and I was able to re-gain myself." Jerry explained sadly. "I am so sorry you had to come get me."

"Basically, Karai lured us both into a trap, used us as bait, and you had to come rescue us." Donny supplied, holding onto Jerry protectively. "I'm sorry I ran out and swore at you."

"Dude, forget that. I wanna beat Karai into the ground now! She hurt my big brother and my main snake dude! She will pay!" Mikey said angrily.

"No kiddin'! Where are you hidin' Karai? Show yaself so we can kick some shell!" Raph cried out, giving a "come get me" gesture to the ceiling.

_"I am everywhere and nowhere, Turtles. Flee with your pathetic lives now, for I will come for you soon and you will pay for decimating my regiment!" _

"Show yourself and fight now, coward! We want you to pay for what you did to our brothers!" Leo shouted. Jerry blinked at being referred to as "brother".

_"If you insist, pathetic creatures. I shall finish what my ninja started." _

Karai dropped down from the ceiling and landed in front of the group. At this point it was obvious that she had been hiding in the rafters. She whipped out two swords, serrated and edged with battles untold in number, and rushed for them. Leo blocked her attack and pushed her back, just enough to allow Mikey to swing overhead and disarm one of her swords.

"Donatello, get Jerry out of here. The two of you are too injured to continue fighting. The three of us will handle her; the Battle Shell is outside, with April and Casey watching over it. They'll take care of you. Go!"

Donny did as he was told and dragged Jerry away. "Wait, what? The humans?" Jerry cried out. His eye widened in fear, the slitted pupil almost disappearing completely.

"I promise you, they're the exact opposite of the humans that hurt you, These are kind humans. I swear to you they will do nothing but help. I've known them forever."

Jerry protested, but allowed himself to be loaded into the Battle Shell, with Donny right behind. He looked at April and Casey with fear in his eyes, shrinking into a corner.

"Hey, big guy. Name's Casey Jones. How's it goin'?"

Jerry made a scared hiss in the back of his throat, but nodded slightly, just the slightest incline of his head to acknowledge that he'd actually responded.

"Donatello told us you were scared of humans, is that right?" April said sweetly.

Jerry nodded. Again, just the slightest nod.

"Don't worry, honey, we're not going to hurt you. I promise we'll do everything in our power to keep you safe." She said. "We promise we're friends."

Jerry was fearful as memories came flooding back to him.

_**'vegotherthey''-**_

Donny grabbed Jerry's shoulders more roughly than he'd meant to, but Jerry's whimpering was beginning to frighten him.

"Jerry! Snap out of it! I swear to you, April is going to help you! Jerry, please! Answer me!"

Jerry blinked and gasped for oxygen, staring at Donny before Donny's words processed in his fractured psyche.

_"D... D'accord." _(O...Okay.) Jerry said, voice wavering.

"Now don't worry. Casey and I have had experience patching up injured mutant reptiles. While we can't promise that this will be completely painless, we will promise that we're not out to hurt you on purpose, okay?" April said slowly and surely, looking into Jerry's eye. Jerry nodded and stayed silent, before curling up on the small bench in the Battle Shell and allowing April to tend to his wounds while Casey wrapped up Donny.

"Dude. Your brothers are just fine in there, I promise." Casey said quietly, just out of audible range for April and Jerry. Jerry, though he was supposed to have the same heightened sense of hearing snakes generally did, didn't due to the attack which left him half-blind and disfigured.

"It's not them I'm worried about." Donny replied in a clipped tone, glancing over at Jerry. Casey caught on quick, nodding.

"Ah. Yeah, I heard you're real attached to him, aren't ya? Look, April's got him under control. He's alright." Casey assured Donny, pulling the turtle into a gentle but manly headlock for a few moments.

"He thought he wasn't going to make it, Casey. You didn't see the will to live leave his eyes like I did in there." Donny said just a bit too loudly, catching April and Jerry's attention.

Jerry caught on that he was being talked about.

Jerry looked over at them with all the pain of a thousand lifetimes in his weary eye. Donny almost cried at the expression. Jerry tilted his head, revealing that even his blind eye was trained on Donny's face.

"Donny... What you said to me... when we were in there..."

"You know I meant every word, Jerry. I told you when we first met; I don't sugar-coat the truth to benefit others. I say what I mean and I mean what I say." Donny said.

"I... " Jerry smiled serenely. "I am so broken, so troubled, and yet you care for me when not even my own mother wanted me."

"You weren't always broken, I can tell. You weren't always this way. What made her hate you so much?"

"I do not remember. All I remember is the pain. Perhaps I've forgotten on purpose." Jerry confessed.

"You mean you've suppressed the memories?"

"If that is how you wish to put it, _oui." _Jerry said stiffly. He didn't want to talk about this anymore. It brought back feelings of pain and agony that would not cease. He let his head fall, his hair covering his face as he looked down at his near-mummified flesh. He was wrapped head to tail in bandages, and he looked like something out of a horror movie. Even his fingers were taped up, probably to cover his claws to try and dissuade him from picking at his bandages, not that he would have anyway.

April and Casey wisely stayed quiet and moved to the front of the Battle Shell van, where Casey could drive it closer (or, if previous accounts with the Battle Shell were an indication, _in) _to the building where the others could get inside.

Donny, surprised by the lurching motion of the van, was shot forward onto the floor. He picked himself up and looked at himself in the window's reflection. "Man, the two of us look like horror movie monsters, don't we?" Donny joked lamely.

"Hmm hmm..." Jerry chuckled lightly. "We look like something out of Black Lagoon, _non?_" Jerry added.

"Yeah, we do. We're also filthy and I can totally feel blood drying under my shell. I need a shower."

Soon, the other three turtles hopped into the van and the van lurched down the road. "So how did it go?" Donny asked. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he registered a warm pressure on his left hand, but his more conscious thought ignored it.

"Let's just say she'll be pretty pissed off when she wakes up." Raph said bitterly. "She fights like a freakin' demon."

"We barely managed to knock her out between the three of us. I think the only real injury she'll sustain is a concussion, maybe, if we were lucky." Leo said, matching Raph's bitter tone.

"Damn." Donny grunted. "I should have stayed behind to help."

"Dude, you already looked like you pissed off a junkyard cat. We weren't gonna let you get yourself killed, bro. Just chill out. We're all fine, dude, isn't that all that matters?" Mikey asked tiredly.

"You're right. I'm sorry." Donny said, sitting back. A high-pitched yelp and a jerking motion underneath him alerted him to the fact he'd sat down on Jerry's tail. Donny suddenly started laughing, once he'd let Jerry's tail go of course.

"What is so funny? You sat on my tail!" Jerry said incredulously.

"I'm sorry, it was the noise you made! That was too adorable, come here."

Jerry repeated the odd yelp when Donny pulled him into a half-cuddle hug. Donny found it somewhat odd that his left arm seemed to be restrained. He couldn't move it; it was trapped. But again, his conscious brain disregarded it.

"Duuuude, I smell a group hug coming on!" Mikey said, diving in, followed by Leo. Raph groaned but eventually joined in once Leo yanked him over by the back of his mask.

When the hug separated, Mikey grinned a giant grin of happiness and cockiness. "Yeah, I can smell group hugs. That's like, my super-secret ninja skill."

"Mikey, your super-secret ninja skill is the ability to smell a pizza joint from five miles away." Donny joked, and they laughed, just like it was the old days, except now, there was a fifth member of their team.

"Does this mean I am safe?" Jerry asked. "That the Foot will not attack me again?"

"We don't know, buddy. We really don't know. All we can tell you is that no matter what, you're with us now, and we'll keep you safe. Especially Donny over there, who hasn't stopped holding your hand since we got on the van." Raph joked.

Jerry and Donny looked down to find that, indeed, Donny's left hand seemed to be glued to Jerry's right. Whether or not Jerry could actually feel the turtle's skin on his was up for debate, as Jerry's brain was processing the image faster than the sensation. He blinked a few times before the warmth of Donny's hand began to flood into his own.

"Oh... oh!" Jerry squeaked, suddenly pulling his hand back, blushing the brightest shade of scarlet. Pulling his hand sideways to his chin in the most effeminate display of embarrassment the Turtles had ever seen, Jerry squeaked again.

Donny's conscious brain caught up with the rest of him.

_"Je suis désolé ! Je n'ai pas ... Je ne savais pas ! Quelle honte !" _Jerry squeaked in that same high-pitched tone. (I'm sorry! I didn't... I didn't realize! How embarrassing!)

Donny simply chose this moment to shut Jerry's high pitched squealing up with a well placed kiss on his melted lips, causing the three other turtles in the van to gag comically and give joking shouts to "Get a room!"

_"Avancé ne peut pas prédire l'avenir , Jerry .Pour l'instant , tenez -moi , et je vais vous t'aime . Non, j'adore tu." _(The most advanced computer can't predict the future, Jerry. For now, hold onto me, and I'll get you through. I love you. No, I adore you.) Donny said in nearly-perfect French (though he was still shaky on his pronunciation). Though his French was shaky and his words came out a bit flat, Jerry understood, and latched himself to Donny's neck in an embrace that he was sure Belle could feel from her revered place in Heaven.


End file.
